Candidate survey yields 97% response rate—the best yet
Survey give citizens no excuse to make uninformed decisions on Nov 7
From, The Kentucky Citizen Digest, January/February, 2001.

Often the general population is criticized by Washington officials and their media cronies, for being uninformed, unquestioning and apathetic.  However, this seems to be a harsh judgment coming from legislators who often fail to make themselves available to the interested electorate for concerns and queries.

An example of this appears in an Aug. 29, 2000 article  in the Lexington Herald-Leader,  which stated that less than one third of all candidates approached with a civic group questionnaire would respond.   The article continues that though some legislators value the opportunity to state their position in surveys such as the aforementioned Vote Smart survey, others are distrustful of interest groups that approach them with surveys.

Where is it then, that voters can turn to find accurate information about political candidates running for election?   Some citizens chose to turn to voter  guides and similar pamphlets which are put out by nonprofit activist groups, such as Right to Life, National Rifle Association, etc.  Guides are useful tools voters can use to help them find the legislator most sympathetic to their concerns.  However, voter guides often center around a very few issues, rather than presenting the big picture.

In reality, people do not have only one issue which they feel comfortable using as their litmus test for candidates.  Instead, a citizen may be concerned with the environment, for example, but can’t help minding his wallet as economic policies are touted.  Someone like this, may come up short  when utilizing voter guides.

For this reason, eight years ago, The Family Foundation created Kentucky Candidate Information Survey.  It is NOTa voter guide or a one-issue poll.  Instead, it is a survey touching on over 20 issues of concern.   Sponsored by local businesses and corporations, this survey foregoes editorializing or slanted questions.  The responses the candidates give are reprinted alongside their competitor’s answers, and both are exact duplicates of the survey we received from them.

This year’s results were published  and distributed statewide.  Responses were also made available to more than 150 local newspapers across the state and of course, one can still find the survey on the World Wide Web at votekentucky.org.

This year, the Kentucky Candidate Information Survey had the privilege of providing its readers with a 97 percent response rate.  Though some responded with a letter of explanation and a telephone number instead of responding to the statements provided, only 3 percent of candidates refused participation.   This says a great deal about the integrity and accuracy of the previous surveys distributed across the state.
 

Key Family Foundation Contacts: Kent Ostrander, Executive Director Martin Cothran, Senior Associate Policy Analyst