CANDIDATES SHOULD FILL OUT POLITICAL QUESTIONNAIRE

Candidates Should Take The Time To Participate

It's easy to get confused - or downright discouraged - by the current spate
of campaign ads. It's not easy to know where some of the candidates stand
on the issues, and that's one important reason people might take a pass on
the Nov. 5 election.

A national organization has a mission to make the election process more
voter-friendly. Project Vote Smart, a nonpartisan, nonprofit group, was
created during the 1992 election cycle to provide voters abundant,
relevant, unbiased information about political candidates.

The organization collects information on more than 40,000 candidates for
county board, city council, state legislature, governor, Congress and
president. Voters can learn biographical information, along with the
candidates' positions on issues, campaign finance data, voting records and
performance evaluations from more than 80 special interest groups.

Project Vote Smart officials are asking Wisconsin candidates for Congress,
governor and state legislature to respond to a political questionnaire by
Oct. 16. Staff and board members will make between four and six contacts
with each campaign by letter, phone and fax urging the candidates to
participate.

We also encourage them to do so. It shouldn't take candidates a lot of time
to fill out the questionnaires, called National Political Awareness Tests,
or NPATs. Different NPATs are mailed to candidates depending on the offices
they're seeking. The documents list issues in alphabetical order - from
abortion to welfare - and offer sometimes up to a dozen or more different
responses to each issue.Respondents can check more than one answer.

Here's an example:

Drug issues: Indicate which principles you support (if any) concerning
illegal drugs:

a) Increase penalties for selling illegal drugs.

b) Support mandatory jail sentences for selling illegal drugs.

c) Expand federally sponsored drug education and drug treatment programs.

d) Decriminalize the use of marijuana for medicinal purposes.

e) Increase border security to stop the flow of illegal drugs into the U.S.

f) Eliminate federal funding for programs associated with the "war on drugs."

g) Other or expanded principles ...

Not too difficult. The questionnaires are about five pages long and have
four or five questions on each page. It's doubtful it would take more than
15 minutes or so to fill one out.

Part of the goal of the NPAT is to test how willing candidates are to
answer questions about where they stand on issues.

It's a good test. We'd like to see every candidate for state and national
office fill out their NPAT to help make it the process easy for voters,
which helps encourage people to vote. If they don't, it's a pretty good
indication that they either don't know the issues or aren't willing to
admit their positions on them.

No candidates for state Assembly or state Senate from central Wisconsin and
no candidates for statewide office had filled out the NPAT as of Monday.

Joe Rothbauer, a Republican challenging U.S. Rep. Dave Obey for the seat in
the 7th Congressional District, has responded.

See the results at http:vote-smart.org or call the free Voter's Research
Hotline at 1-888-VOTE-SMART.

If your candidates aren't listed yet, ask them why. Encourage them to
respond to this valuable tool to help you make the best choice this November.