The undermining of our democracy

From an Oct.23 Project Vote Smart press release:

"As part of the data collection efforts, the Project [Vote Smart] has conducted a ten-year study called the National Political Awareness Test (NPAT), which has asked every congressional, gubernatorial and state legislative candidate in the country since 1996 one question: Are you willing to tell citizens your positions on the issues you will most likely face on their behalf?

"Results of the National Political Awareness Test from 1996-2006 indicate a dramatic nosedive over the last five election cycles in the willingness of candidates of both major parties to say "yes" to that question, and then prove it by answering a few questions on issues known to be of concern to voters in their state. In the 1996-1998 tests, a high of 72 percent of all federal candidates and 38 percent of all state legislative candidates responded "yes" to the question. Since then, the decline has been steady and dramatic. The 2006 statistics are at an all time low of 48 percent and 26 percent for federal and state legislative candidates respectively. Gubernatorial candidate rates for 2006 are at 43%, also an all time low.

"Following documented advice from their campaign consultants and party leaders, candidates of both major parties cite fear of opposition research and a need to control their campaign message to justify withholding information from voters.

"Now candidates for public office attempt to tailor their images to what they think will sell in the political marketplace. This campaign strategy counts on the voters buying these images instead of requiring straight-forward answers from the candidates to fair-minded questions on the issues they will have to face if elected.

"'Campaign consultants now have enormous power over our election process, and they are not accountable to the public in any way,' Kimball said. 'One campaign consultant told us, "It's not our job to educate--it's our job to win." Another said, "I advised my candidate not to answer issue questions unless they came with a campaign donation." This cynical advice strips citizens of the information the Founding Fathers considered essential if they were to cast the vote out to the masses."