As a journalist I sometimes get asked a very personal question: “Who are you voting for?”
“The best candidate,” I reply coyly, cleaving to my role as a nonpartisan purveyor of investigative reporting.
“So who’s the best candidate?” the questioner (usually one of my tween-age boys) presses.
“Well if you don’t know, you should do your homework.”
Unfortunately, when it comes to local elections, doing your homework has become increasingly difficult. Newspapers have laid off local reporters and in some cases shuttered entirely. Online media is propelled more by what drives clicks than that old civic bromide: An informed citizenry is vital to a free society.
The internet has also emboldened political candidates to rely on direct emails, social media and their personal campaign websites to spin their record, rather than answer questions from reporters or fill out questionnaires from the League of Women Voters.
In 2022, it wasn’t the state’s largest daily newspapers that previewed all 116 state Assembly and Senate elections, it was Milwaukee area blogger Dan Shafer of the Recombobulation Area, whose series won a Milwaukee Press Club Award.
To help voters navigate our current political system, Wisconsin Watch is launching a new voter guide with the goal of providing voters a central hub to find out more about their local candidates for Assembly, Senate and Congress.
Similar to MyVote.wi.gov, maintained by the Wisconsin Elections Commission, voters can type in their address and find out which legislative districts they live in. But unlike MyVote, the Wisconsin Watch voter guide provides a digest of information about the candidates and links to Wisconsin Watch stories and other trusted news partner coverage about some of the key contests.
The Wisconsin Watch voter guide was a team effort with contributions from reporters Jack Kelly, Hallie Claflin, Ava Menkes and Julius Shieh, online editor Jeff Bauer, data reporter Khushboo Rathore and former audience director Kiran Saini. It is modeled on other successful state-based election guides, like the one created by CalMatters. Shafer was also an inspiration.
“I believe democracy is built from the bottom up,” Shafer told Wisconsin Watch. “A lot of these state races are really important and can reverberate across every other race in the state.”
It’s also an organic guide that will grow with new information and stories over the next several months as we write about key contests and aggregate stories from other news outlets.
Before you head to the polls next Tuesday and on Nov. 5, be sure to check out the Wisconsin Watch voter guide to help you make an informed decision.
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