This is what happens when people don't vote (lawyer, school)

[GraniteStater]

Brownback is out for a complete takeover. Remember this for future reference...


Kansas Lawmakers Ignore Separation Of Powers, Look To Impeach Supreme Court Justices | ThinkProgress

[Mattks]

Going on the title of the thread, "This is what happens when people don't vote." I'm assuming you are talking about low voting numbers for judiciary positions and such? I think part of the problem is the candidates do almost nothing to introduce themselves to the public, and there is almost zero media coverage on local elections. I try to stay fairly informed most elections; local, state, or federal, but sometimes finding information on candidates, especially judges, school board, etc can be incredibly difficult. Of the 15-25% who vote in those elections, I bet a significant portion don't even know who they are voting for.

I don't disagree with the "theme' of the article, Brownback has made a mess and he's pointing the blame everywhere, but at himself, but they seem to be pushing all sorts of fluff into it. "Things got so dire that at one point the state arranged an auction of sex toys to recoup a relatively small amount of money from an adult store owner who’d cheated on his taxes." I actually remember this, it was somewhat controversial, but auctioning assets from businesses who cheat on taxes is the norm, it's how the state recoups their losses. It's funny that thinkprogress.com of all places would complain about that.

In some good news, hopefully the budget gap is closing. March was down $8.5 million, after February's $53 million deficit. (Without budget estimate changes mind you) So far the state is down $92 million this year.

http://www.hutchnews.com/news/local_...c2c7d9642.html

[elkotronics]

I imagine Kansas waits until the last possible moment to pay taxes the state owes you (us) if it comes out that way on our income taxes for the year, right?

[mshultz]

One thing Ohio does better than Kansas, is that judges, including the Ohio Supreme Court, are elected by non-partisan ballot. That way, the judges are directly accountable to the voters.

I agree about the difficulty of knowing about the candidates for some of the elections. When I was a member of the County Planning Commission, I worked with some of the elected officials. One of the current commissioners, who is running for state representative, goes to my church. Although I read about the candidates in the newspaper, and look at their campaign literature, it is still difficult to determine the best candidate. On the other hand, most of us voters can figure out if a candidate is a flake.

My (deceased) father ran successfully for Alliance City Council and Wayne County Board of Education, and unsuccessfully for Ohio Board of Education. His campaigns were self-funded, as he believed that accepting donations caused you to be obligated to the donors.

[Mathguy]

Sorry but Thinkprogress is about as honest as Rush Limbaugh.

I'm not going to click on something that just from the article title should set off your BS detectors.

[Mathguy]

Originally Posted by mshultz

One thing Ohio does better than Kansas, is that judges, including the Ohio Supreme Court, are elected by non-partisan ballot. That way, the judges are directly accountable to the voters.

I agree about the difficulty of knowing about the candidates for some of the elections. When I was a member of the County Planning Commission, I worked with some of the elected officials. One of the current commissioners, who is running for state representative, goes to my church. Although I read about the candidates in the newspaper, and look at their campaign literature, it is still difficult to determine the best candidate. On the other hand, most of us voters can figure out if a candidate is a flake.

My (deceased) father ran successfully for Alliance City Council and Wayne County Board of Education, and unsuccessfully for Ohio Board of Education. His campaigns were self-funded, as he believed that accepting donations caused you to be obligated to the donors.

My good friend is a lawyer and we had a similar conversation a while back about the pros\cons of appointing judges vs. elected judges.

I personally lean towards appointments because sadly the public doesn't know crap about how they are as judges.

[GraniteStater]

Originally Posted by Mathguy

Sorry but Thinkprogress is about as honest as Rush Limbaugh.

I'm not going to click on something that just from the article title should set off your BS detectors.

Really, that is quite petty now. That same news story was in multiple different media sources on that day, I just posted whatever was on my browser window at the time as I look at multiple different news sites.

[Mathguy]

Originally Posted by GraniteStater

Really, that is quite petty now. That same news story was in multiple different media sources on that day, I just posted whatever was on my browser window at the time as I look at multiple different news sites.

Actually it's not petty at all, I frankly refuse to click on thinkprog or glen beck or any other HIGHLY partisan site because you cannot trust the reporting and I don't feel like fact checking every statement they make.

I'll click on Huffpo, Fox etc. and those are often bad enough but don't call me petty for having standards.

Just this once for comparison I did, then I clicked on this one....
http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/...-justices-imp/

Notice any differences?

I mean seriously, suggesting that the state had to sell sex toys solely because of their dire financial condition. That crap will rot your brain man....

[Greymatter46]

The impeachment process IS PART OF checks and balances.

[Kthnry]

Originally Posted by Mathguy

Sorry but Thinkprogress is about as honest as Rush Limbaugh.

I have to agree. I'm a bleeding-heart liberal, so Think Progress articles appear in my FaceBook newsfeed pretty regularly, but I can't bear to read them. Just awful.