Tuesday, February 19, 2019

Looking at Democrats for 2020: Part 1

I know it has been a while since I've written here. I've been thinking a lot about politics lately and about how much I feel the need to get involved with the 2020 Presidential process. I want to make the time to look into this ever growing field of candidates. I want to really dig in and start the process of figuring out who I support most and who I have serious reservations about. This year the initial debates will have criteria for admission and one of the ways candidates can get on the stage is to gain grassroots donations. I want to figure out who best represents my values and who I want to support financially on their journey.

So here is the project. Every week or so I will determine a set of criteria before I start research. I will put it at the top of the post. Then I will randomize the list of current democratic candidates and start researching from top to bottom. Each will be given points based on the criteria I lay out for that week. At the end there will also be a ranking of cumulative points. What does this mean? I'm not sure yet but it strikes me as fun and a way for me to start thinking about these candidates over the coming months as we head towards the debate season.

So... we are going to start out slow here. I don't expect candidates to have it all figured out right now. I don't expect them to agree with me on how to fix things yet. Right now I want to see that they are committed, communicative, and are aware of many of the issues that matter to me. Candidates who don't find it easy to navigate the website to statements about issues will be at a disadvantage this week but this is my system and so I'm basing it on what I want to see. Feel free to make your own system if you don't think the candidates are getting a fair shake.

Committed:


1 pt for having launched an exploratory committee OR 2 pts for having officially announced.

Communicative:

1 pt for having a campaign website
1 pt for the website having a clear issues section
1 pt for having 2 methods to contact the campaign listed on the website

Awareness of Issues:

1 pt for Climate Change.
1 pt for multiple disadvantaged demographics mentioned distinctly
1 pt for healthcare
1 pt for voting rights and voting issues
1 pt for immigration
1 pt for foreign policy
1 pt for wealth disparity issues
1 pt for corruption
1 pt for taxes
1 pt for education
1 pt for police accountability
1 pt for gun safety

Total Points Possible This Week: 17

Random order of currently announced candidates at the time of this writing: Warren, Gabbard, Yang, Harris, Williamson, Castro, Klobuchar, Sanders, Booker, Delaney, Buttigieg.
*Ojeda not included because his website states that he is suspending his campaign.

Since these standards are pretty straightforward I'm going to just list the standards that they don't meet for this first week. This part may change as the standards for getting points in my system change.

Elizabeth Warren - 13 Points Awarded this week


Barely Qualifies:
- Climate Change: Makes only brief mention of Green New Deal and as a foreign policy concern
- Healthcare: Brief mention of Medicare for All and military benefits
- Education: Brief mention of Student Loan Debt and military benefits

Missing:
- Multiple Disadvantaged Demographics Distinctly: Race is mentioned a few times both African American and people of color. The only other group that almost gets partial credit in the issues section is "Workers" which for my purposes is not sufficiently distinct especially considering all the different type of folks that have concerns that could have also been mentioned.

- Immigration

- Police Accountability: While she does mention demilitarizing the police and she mentions generically "holding everyone accountable" when they break the law the connection to holding the police accountable specifically is not sufficiently clear to grant the point.

- Gun Safety

Tulsi Gabbard - 4 Points Awarded this week

Missing:
- Issues section of website and thus issues statements

Andrew Yang - 15 points Awarded this week

Barely Qualifies:
- Voting Rights: Wants to modernize voting by having voting via mobile phones and the block chain. I'm trying to not get into agreements or disagreements with the candidates at this stage but this, to me, does not show a sufficient understanding of the problem.

Missing:
- Wealth Disparity: While he advocates for redistributive policies, I'm not sure he sees the extreme disparity itself as a problem.

- Police Accountability

Kamala Harris - 4 points Awarded this week

Missing:
- Issues section of website and thus issues statements

Marianne Williamson - 15 points Awarded this week

Missing:
- immigration
- police accountability

Julian Castro - 4 points Awarded this week

Missing:
- Issues section of website and thus issues statements

Amy Klobuchar - 4 points Awarded this week

Missing:
- Issues section of website and thus issues statements

Bernie Sanders - 3 points Awarded this week

Missing:
- One option for contacting the campaign
- Issues section of website and thus issues statements

Cory Booker - 4 points Awarded this week

Barely:
- Contact methods: Social media icons are very small 

Missing:
- Issues section of website and thus issues statements

John Delaney - 15 points Awarded this week

Barely Qualifies:
- Disadvantaged groups. References financially depressed communities, women and youth in very isolated ways. Has a general statement for all Americans regardless of race, gender identity, religion, sexual orientation or heritage. 

Missing:
- wealth disparity
- police accountability

Pete Buttigieg - 3 points Awarded this week

Missing:
- Official Announcement: Buttigieg currently has only launched an exploratory committee
- Issues section of website and thus issues statements

Points Totals: 

(By total first, then alphabetically by last name)

Delaney - 15 points
Williamson - 15 points
Yang - 15 Points
Warren - 13 Points
Booker - 4 points
Castro - 4 points
Gabbard - 4 Points
Harris - 4 points
Klobuchar - 4 points
Buttigieg - 3 points
Sanders - 3 points

Takeaways:

It seems that I have over-estimated the amount of easily navigable policy information that would be available on the candidate's websites. Top points go to three of the underdogs. The highest scorer among the bigger names in the race at this point is Warren. It will be interesting to think about what I want to look for next week in the campaigns given this disparity in how the campaigns present information or don't present information.