I voted absentee – to give me time with my ballot to consider each candidate – and I found that many candidates have no internet record whatsoever.   That’s a bad sign for NEO.

Running for public office with zero internet presence is a clear indication that the candidate is provincial, technically backward, and ignorant/dismissive that there is a huge section of the public that use the internet to make up-to-date, informed decisions.  With no internet familiarity, these  IT “dark” candidates are not in a position to effectively and efficiently work/serve in public office.  

At least the IT dummies could set up a MySpace or Facebook page – or have someone do it for them.

Elections in Ohio are a bit crazy in the first place – because we elect persons for office for “County Engineer” and “County Coroner”,     plus a whole pack of judges are elected. 

In many states these offices are appointed.   Appointment probably makes more sense.   Coroners and Engineers and Judges should have professional qualifications – not merely a lobby campaign and popularity. 

There are sites like http://www.judge4yourself.com/  (The judicial candidates rating coalition) which score the potential judges on their professional records.  Using the literature mailed by the candidates is not very useful. 

I noticed also that in Cuyahoga County there are lots of Irish names on the democratic ballot (this isn’t a slight to the Irish, many of my relatives are Irish) With so many people to elect, it isn’t easy to determine which candidates are placed on the ballot by the Democratic Machine and which candidates are legitimate office seekers. 

Brent Larkin (no live link because DD archives after 14 days are pay – which is stupid because this is one hit they won’t get) made this argument in the DD with regard to the Judgeship race Ms. Keogh is running, and I never heard any rebuttal from Bill Mason.   We can fairly deduce - from the County’s purchase of the Amertrust Tower (Breuer) and from the County passing a medical mart sales tax before they knew who would be a medical mart tenant - that the Democratic Machine’s lead guy, Jimmy Dimora, is not the best decision maker.   So if the Demo machine is loading the ballot - no wonder NEO is suffering.

So does the bizarre number of county office candidates  on the ballot leave the voting public faced with no real option but electing an Irish Democratic Machine in Cuyahoga?  If this is true, then this may be one reason NEO is consistently headed down the economic drain.  Our government is not serving its public, but rather serving its own myopic party goals of keeping itself on the public gravy train.

Good luck making informed decisions regarding your County candidates.