(from here)

Please see our 2019 Voter Guides.

Should the candidates who raise the most money win elections just because they have raised the most money? How do we decide? What can we do about it?

When people spend money on an election, they can try to do several things.

• They can try to affect what people believe about the candidates. They can either inform or propagandize the electorate.
• They can encourage supporters to vote. That is, they can turn out the vote for their preferred candidates.
• They can suppress their opponents’ voters. They can try to make winning the election seem hopeless. They can try to make the opposition candidates seem unworthy of support.

Because it is very difficult for a public figure to sue for slander and libel, much of what passes for campaign commercials are just lies. Even the news is suspect. So, because we cannot depend upon either campaign commercials or the news, we have to carefully research the candidates. We have to find out the truth by checking multiple sources. That is difficult work, but it is work we cannot avoid, not if we want our family, friends and neighbors to live in a decent country.

Consider. Do we want who raises the most money to decide our elections? Do we want wealthy people from out-of-state buying our elections? Is out-of-state money a good or a bad thing? Consider some articles on the subject.

• Virginia Democrats outraise Republicans in out-of-state donations (whsv.com)
• The Blue Wave Faces Its First Test After 2018 (theatlantic.com)
• Grassroots Spotlight: NRA-ILA Fighting the Bloomberg Money In Virginia 2019 Elections (nraila.org)
• Virginia in the Crosshairs (usnews.com)
• The Rise of Out-of-State Money (baconsrebellion.com)
• Soros’s New PAC Drops $625,000 on Virginia Democrats Ahead of Pivotal Elections (americantruthtoday.com)
• Democrats generally out-raising Republicans in Williamsburg-area contests ahead of elections (dailypress.com)

Money often does not decide elections. That’s because we look into who is financing each of the candidates. Here is one way to do that. Check out the Virginia Public Access Project (vpap.org). For example, look at the information vpap.org has on the race for the 13th Senate District. You can see who is making donations to each of the candidates and where those donations are coming from. You can also make a pretty good guess what each of those donors wants for their donation.

Let’s all do our homework. Maybe the best candidate is getting the larger amount in campaign donations, but let’s not let the people with the biggest pockets decide who wins.

Please see our 2019 Voter Guides.