Transparency in Endorsements

For those of you that have never run for office, you will be surprised by this. There is an amazing number of orginazations that ask the candidates to fill out questionaires. (Fortuantely a lot of the questions are duplicates, otherwise there is no way they could all be answered.) I think opening up this part of the election process will help all of us better understand how we elect our council members.

I have emailed the below letter to the following groups. If I missed anyone, please let me know.

Boulder Area Rental Housing Association	www.barhaonline.org	[email protected]
Boulder Chamber of Commerce	www.boulderchamber.com	[email protected]
Boulder Community Neighborhood Forum	{google comes up empty}	{help please!}
Boulder Daily Camera	www.dailycamera.com	[email protected]
Boulder Hotel and Motel Association	www.boulderlodging.com	[email protected]
Boulder Outdoor Coalition	www.boulder-outdoor-coalition.org	[email protected]
Boulder Weekly	www.boulderweekly.com	[email protected]
Colorado Daily	www.coloradodaily.com	[email protected]
Eco-Cycle	www.ecocycle.org	[email protected]
FIDOS	www.fidos.org	[email protected]
FOBOS	www.friendsofopenspace.org	[email protected]
Historic Boulder	www.historicboulder.org	[email protected]
PLAN-Boulder	www.planbouldercounty.org	[email protected]
Sierra Club	rockymtn.sierraclub.org/ipg/index.shtml	[email protected]
Yellow Scene	www.yellowscene.com	[email protected]

 

Hello;

I write the blog Liberal & Loving It and as with the last City Council election, I am blogging on this election. You are at the forefront of citizen organizations advocating for improving our government in Boulder and that increased transparency has led to better government.

I am asking your support for greater transparency in the election process. The recommendations your organizations make in large part determines who is elected. As such, this means you are a major part of determining who we will have on the city council. Therefore, I am asking you to please answer the following questions which I will then post on my blog.

I think this information will help the voters better understand the basis for your recommendations. And that increased transparency will give us better educated voters. I think that is something we can all agree is a very important thing.

1. Do you evaluate all candidates or just some? If just some, what are your criteria to pre-select the candidates you will consider?
2. What are the steps in your process? (ie, questionaire, candidate presentation, etc.)
3. If you give them a questionaire (if any), can you provide a copy? And can you provide the answers you received from each candidate?
4. Who are the people in your organization that vote on who you select?

Finally, if you have a web page that is your central point for your endorsements, etc. in this election, please give me that and I will add a link to it from my blog.

I look forward to your answers. I think all of you will find it interesting to see how the other groups handle this very important effort.

Thanks - dave