splitting your vote

I am wondering how many folks split their ticket?

I voted yesterday and I did split my ticket voting one party for president and another for US senate. I have done this on occasion, but have to admit, probably not as much as I should. I like to look at each race independently, but in reality, my values fall in line with Democrats more often than not and I vote that way the vast majority of time. One thing I never do is pull one party lever, or push one party button. I will not vote for someone down ticket that I know nothing about simply because they are a democrat or republican. If I haven't taken the time to evaluate the race and learn a little something about the candidates, I will simply not vote that race.

It is also common for me to skip a race if I do not like the democratic candidate, rather than just vote for the opponent. It is rarer for me to vote AGAINST the democratic candidate as I did yesterday. That has to almost be a case of I believe this person to pure evil.

Common wisdom tells me that the majority of voters just pull a party lever. But lately I have wondered about that. There are a number of cases in which states that vote overwhelmingly one way in presidential elections vote for someone from the other party for a statewide office. Massachusetts immediately comes to mind. Overwhelmingly democrat, they have elected a number of republicans to statewide office including Governor Romney and current Senator Brown. California has done likewise with Governors Reagan and Schwarzenegger. On the republican side, Texas is among a number of states that has done likewise. Current democratic senator Tester from Montana is in a close race to retain his seat, but he was initially elected from the pretty conservative state of Montana, which also has a democratic Governor.

So I am just curious as to how many of you split tickets and vote each race independently. And those of you who participate in the MANY political discussion, feel free to post your results as well as vote. I am sure we are all curious to find out if our opinion of some of the heavy hitter on the political discussion is wrong. lol

I usually do exactly what you describe, although I lean vote Republican far more often than Democrat, and Libertarian when the option is available and I like the candidate.

I, however, have once voted straight down the ticket, without specifically knowing a lot about the Republican Candidates. I voted down the ticket that time, because it was a local election, and the Democrats hold every single seat. I don't like one party being in charge for so long, and they probably will for a long time, so given the opportunity, I vote straight against the Democrats on a local level (where these guys been comfortable too long.)

Otherwise, I vote based on my values. This usually goes Libertarian for President, Republican in the Senate (maybe Libertarian this year, unsure) and a toss up in the house. Some Democrats ardently defend a couple of things that are really important to me, and even though the one I have in mind is, IMO, reckless on economic policy, nobody listens to him about that stuff anyway. Plus, I'm pretty sure my district changed, so now I've got to go look again.

A big split ticket this year will be in Virginia. Kaine is a very popular ex-governor and is outspending the living shit out of George Allen. Admittedly, I live in Northern Virginia (liberal DC suburbs), but the radio ads are at least 3:1 for Kaine. I actually just looked at the polls for the first time in quite awhile and it looks to be pretty close (Kaine vs. Allen) while Romney has a few points on Obama. The polls a month ago were 5-7 points for Kaine. I wouldn't be surprise if there's a 5-8 point difference between Presidential and Senatorial in favor of Kaine by election day. Maybe someone with more Virginia experience can chime in here.

Massachusetts is a really weird situation. Brown came in during the tea party extravaganza and has a reasonable amount of popularity... while the Democrats could have nominated anyone other than a woman who lied about her heritage and easily won it.

Another one is my home state of Washington. Obama has a consistent 10 point advantage yet the governor's race is within a couple of points. McKenna (the R) has been the attorney general for as long as I could vote.

It all comes down to popularity in order to get over that hump. Karl Rove said something like "undecided voters can have polar opposite viewpoints" - like the rich need to pay more but we don't want to punish success. So it just comes down to if the voter thinks he can trust you.


Personally, I vote straight down the R line unless I know that a given candidate doesn't respect life (wouldn't have voted for Giuliani or a McCain-Lieberman ticket). Almost every single "pro-life" Democrat has betrayed his voters after he arrived in DC and until I see differently my votes and donations won't change.