By Dan Nelson
Vote Conway, the lesser of two evils
Election Day, November 5th, is now a week away, and I am unsure if most Americans realize the importance of this year’s election results. Republicans already control the presidency and the Supreme Court, and they are merely one senate seat away from claiming the entire legislative branch as well. This election has been made significantly more bizarre by the controversial dropping out and replacement of Senator Robert Torricelli and last week’s death of Senator Paul Wellstone, both Democrats. Winning control in the Senate will not only give the Republicans a voting majority, but will also award them the Senate’s committees and the ability to set the agenda as well. A lot is at stake next Tuesday for the Democratic Party, which is at risk of having its last foothold in the national government removed from under it. Voter turnout is very important. This election day, Americans must decide whether or not they wish to return to the Republican-dominated federal government that was briefly in place before Senator Jim Jeffords’s desertion from the GOP last year.
This, for nearly all voters, will mean voting for a candidate that does not entirely support their views. The old adage that complains about “voting for the lesser of two evils” will unfortunately always be uttered in any democracy, and especially in our own country’s rigid two-party system. It is through this lens that I scrutinize the Louisville area’s most significant political ticket, the statistical dead heat House race between Ann Northup and Jack Conway. Tight races make candidates especially tightlipped about issues in fear of scaring off any support, and the most I can deduce from their massive television campaigns is that both are for more jobs and better education. Coincidentally, I, too, am for both of these, but after peering deeper into the issues, and into Northup’s very conservative voting record, I have found many reasons to support Conway. Unfortunately, I have also found a few reasons to wish that I lived in a different political district, preferably somewhere in Massachusetts or New York.
Concerning color schemes, Northup wins hands down. I much prefer Northup’s red and blue motif over Conway’s ugly blue and pastel yellow liberally splashed on banners and website alike. Beyond this, I find little to like about Northup. Her website (www.northupforcongress.com) touts her education reform and local bridge building capabilities, which is all good, but does not address other significant issues. In fact, it was quite a pain for me, a lay voter, to find Northup’s position on many issues. Her voting record is probably her best measure. In 2001, Northup voted no on a bill that maintained the drilling ban in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge. She has also toed the conservative line on nearly all votes concerning abortion and civil rights.
The fact that Northup’s campaigners have brushed these issues aside gives credence to her opponent’s accusation that she is too conservative for her constituents. Conway, on the other hand, is by all evidence a very moderate Democrat (www.conwayforcongress.com). “Liberal with restraint” appears to be his motto, as he is pro-choice, yet not the strongest abortion rights advocate, an environmentalist on some issues but not on others. Unlike Northup, he supports protecting the Alaskan refuges from drilling, but disapproves of both stronger domestic emissions standards and reentering the Kyoto Treaty to limit global warming. Most problematic for left-leaning voters is Conway’s strong Second Amendment support, including the right for citizens to carry concealed weapons.
Conway, then, is my lesser of the two evils. His views, a diluted version of my own, probably best reflect the views of those who will be voting in his district, whether the voters are aware of it or not. Why should I vote for Conway, even though I disagree with him on many key issues? This is a problem that serial idealists such as myself will wrestle with on Election Day. Unfortunately, in the current political situation, both sitting out and third-party voting would be reckless. With a large portion of the GOP remaining intransigently conservative on social issues, Northup does a good job of representing this growing branch of her party. This is precisely why I will not vote for her. With Republican victory at close hand on the other side of the capital building, I cast my vote for Jack Conway for House Representative.
