At the local level, candidates for mayor, city council and school board are all listed on the ballots as independent. (Take a look at the list of candidates for the Norfolk council shown here.) None of these candidates are selected by a party; instead, they file the paperwork and run. So far, so good.
Candidates for the five constitutional offices - Sheriff, Commonwealth's Attorney, Clerk of Court, Commissioner of the Revenue, and Treasurer are all selected by party. Here is a list of all of the candidates on the ballot in Norfolk for the November 2005 election. Note that party afflilation is clearly shown.
But such information doesn't make it to the ballot. The Virginia Code limits the inclusion of party on the ballot to federal, statewide and General Assembly candidates only. If that is the case, then why do we have party primaries for those races? This question goes hand-in-hand with the issue of party support - or lack thereof - for local candidates. With no party identification and no money, would somebody please explain to me the value of obtaining a party nomination?
In my mind, we have two choices:
2. The parties should remove themselves from the process of nominating candidates for these offices and anybody that wants to run does so as an independent.
It's tough enough to run as a local candidate without financial support from the party; not having the party affiliation on the ballot adds insult to injury.
Cross-posted from http://vivianpaige.wordpress.com