photo by Andrew Magill/Flickr, used under a Creative Commons license
If you are going to the polls still undecided, look at the personal spending habits of the candidates on the ballot. How people spend their own money is a good indication of how they will spend the taxpayers’ money as well. Find a candidate that has built a successful business without debt or has managed investments wisely. It does not matter if the candidate is personally wealthy or not, just the manner in which they use their resources. If candidates accumulate massive amounts of personal debt, they will not see a problem with the government doing the same. On the other hand, if they pay their bills on time and live responsibly, they will expect no less from the state. So, no matter the political party, vote for the tightwads!
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Studying the two major political parties, a few statistics stand out. Republicans recruited 24 more House candidates and 5 more candidates for Senate seats. In the House, the Democrats outraised them, but not in the Senate races. More contributors were individuals as opposed to political action committees to Republican candidates whereas Democrats garnered more cash for PACs. The average Democrat incumbent Senator raised $11M and their counterparts in the House raised an average of $1.4M. The Republican incumbent Senators raised an average of $9.5M and House members $1.2M. Challengers running on the Democratic Ticket for the Upper Chamber averaged $500,000 and Congressmen $215,000. Republican Challengers averaged $1.1M for the Senate and $273,000 in the House. Does all of this equal a red wave next Tuesday? I think a better question is how big is the red wave?
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Remember when you vote, in some races, it counts twice. The Texas Speaker of the House as well as the Congressional Speaker are voted into office by their peers. Thus, when you choose your local and national House members, you are essentially voting for the Speaker as well. The Speaker has enormous power from choosing chairmen and their committee members to influencing which pieces of legislation make it to the floor for a vote. Remember you can early vote in Texas until October 29th so choose wisely.
