Labor Day

A month has gone by, I was focused on researching candidates in Michigan. They were challenging since a lot of them didn't have campaign websites or an account on Facebook and Twitter. It took me a couple of weeks to dig up as much information about them. I am now working on three candidates in South Carolina. One of them is running as a Green party candidate. His website is pretty interesting. It doesn't tell me anything about where he stands on issues we have listed in our spreadsheet. Instead he is trying to act smart and mix art with politics. On his website you can make vote toast. What the hell is that? Basically you put a piece of bread in a toaster oven... simple let it get toasted and then you scribble vote on it. It's simple, do that, make as many as you want and put it in random places. It doesn't sound like a novel idea.

Then there is a libertarian running for office. I am trying to figure out where he stands on big government and spending. I spent part of Friday listening to his podcasts. He has a slick website but he doesn't state where he stands on issues. He did post articles which are pretty interesting. They deal with national security and how the two main political parties are screwing up this country. Finally another Green party candidate is running but there is not a lot of information on him. It's now September, hopefully I can achieve my goals while I am here.

First Week

My first week in Montana has been interesting. The ranch is surrounded by beautiful mountains and there are two fresh lakes where you can go swimming. The work, itself, is tedious but interesting. Last week, I was doing research on Congressional candidates running in Wisconsin against the incumbents. This week I am focusing on congressional races in Virginia. My job is simple. Find out where each candidate stands on certain issues. That includes: abortion, same-sex marriage, economy, social security, etc. My research includes looking up the candidates on Google, Facebook, and Twitter. All there websites help me figure out where they stand on those issues.

Democrats and Republicans are generally easy to look up and figure out what they are campaigning about.  Independent candidates are little tougher. Some of them have websites and others don't even have a profile on Google. Also, newspaper articles or previous debates involving the candidates helps me out immensely. They will spell out their position. Once I have the information, I have to put it on a spreadsheet. If there are two or more pieces of evidence that spell out a candidate's stance on an issue, then we put a Y for yes or N for No.

Aside from the work, the lodging is nice and my room mate is a chef who cooks food for all the interns. The food is healthy and nutritious. So far its been a good week and hopefully I can keep that up.