The national media will talk about national problems because it's something that everyone in all 50 states can understand, but the reality is these are minor factors. These are local races. ... The issues tend to be less ideological than for Senate races or races for president. ... It's about potholes and streetlights.
When all is said and done and the e-book is written about politics and the Internet, it is not going to be about the presidential election. It will be about the smaller elections in aggregate that have a huge effect on people's lives.
Young people are being elected for School Boards all over the country.
Mayors of New York have been elected not because of their party label, but because of their philosophy and their approach overall, and that has been since time immemoriam in New York, that people are not party-oriented in New York.
We can't continue assuming that politics is something which is decided elsewhere by distant leaders in a distant capital. Protest is insufficient too. If people who are willing to put time into demonstrations also prove willing to work on behalf of candidates in local elections - or to become candidates themselves - they will achieve far more. If all of this upheaval provokes more involvement, then we have a slim chance of ending up with more vibrant democracies eventually. The alternative, as you've hinted, is that democracy fails altogether.
What matters is voting for where you live: Who's your mayor, who's your police chief, who represents you, your city council, your judges. That matters that you vote.
I want people to start getting involved in voting for the Senate, Congress and local elections. I just want to see us get involved more in the political process especially when you see things like police brutality going on and different people complaining about the sheriffs whether it's in Ferguson or Missouri.
Hardly anybody in America pays attention to local elections.
I don't think we can go into important local elections next year... with Tony Blair as leader and expect to keep many of the councillors we've got now.
I don’t attend rallies and I don’t participate in presidential elections. In fact, I don’t participate in any election. I don’t participate in the governor’s race, I don’t participate in the mayor’s race. I participate in one election every two years. Then I’m strong for Hebert. That is the only election I take part in.
I think it's very important that the United States keeps out of the local electoral process in Mexico.
We must continue to recruit progressive prosecutors to run in local elections, support those who do, and hold them accountable if they win.
Obviously, local elections are where you can make the most difference, but it's great when everyone starts talking about what they believe in.
On my show, I often discuss all the ways one can get involved politically on a local level, precincts, et al.
Everyone knows the presidential candidates and has an opinion about them. But as you get to smaller races, that evaporates and you can win through sheer elbow grease.
I have consistently made it very clear that I will vote a straight Democratic ticket, just like I do every election. From the local Constable to the President, I will be voting for every Democrat on the ballot.
Especially in local elections, because hardly anybody pays attention to those - but it's really important who's mayor and who's on the city council, county commissioners, sheriffs, district attorney, and of course the school board.
Gender used to be a barrier for women to overcome if they wanted to be in politics, but today in Taiwan the situation is somewhat different. I think there is even a preference for a woman candidate, and in local elections, we have seen that younger, better-educated female candidates are overwhelmingly preferred by the voters.
You aren't just voting for the president. So many issues that affect your everyday life are decided locally on that ballot as well. So go get that god damn sticker. Your country needs you.
Be informed, ask questions, band together with your community, and fight at the local level. And make sure you take your local elections as seriously as the national ones.
You can't really feel the direct change from one president to another versus people closer to you in local elections.
Grassroots organizing tends to be most available to big campaigns, but it's actually most useful to small ones. You can't win a presidential campaign without going on TV, but you can win a local election simply by organizing your community. NationBuilder levels the playing field.
The problem with the Democratic Party is, we're like, 'If we just get another presidential candidate in there, everything will be OK.' We should be focusing on school boards, city council races, state legislatures.
I spent many years working for voting rights, but we still see sophisticated efforts, led by white officials, to disenfranchise black voters in local and national elections.
Democrats are not a national party. They have lost governorships, state legislatures, mayoralties. They have lost 1,500 seats since elections, 2010, '12, '14, it's been devastating. And it's all Obama.
