The primaries are over and you’re ready for a deep dive to learn more about where the candidates on the November ballot stand on issues.
You grab a cold beverage, settle into a chair and grab your phone or tablet.
First stop: The candidates’ websites. Next stop: Disappointment.
Candidate websites have largely become a wasteland, barren of meaningful information on issues while lush with self-congratulation and donation come-ons.
Examples abound.
Earlier this week — two full weeks after he won the Republican nomination for governor — Ron DeSantis had a grand total of 154 words under the six “issues” featured on his website. That’s about 1,000 characters, which amounts to about a half-dozen tweets.
Intuitively, you’d think there’s a lot more to say about the issues facing Florida.
Democrat Sean Shaw, who’s running for state attorney general, highlights five issues as “priorities” but devotes an average of about 16 words to each, none of which say specifically how these priorities will translate into change.
Mike Miller, a Republican running for Congress in Central Florida, doesn’t even bother with an “issues” or “priorities” button on his website, but a gold “donate” button is prominently displayed.
Candidate websites aren’t the only source of information about people seeking your vote. Diligent voters can — and should — check out candidates’ Twitter feeds and Facebook pages, read newspaper profiles and study questionnaires submitted to candidates by civic organizations (at least, when candidates bother to return them).
But candidate websites serve as a natural starting point to learn what office-seekers plan to do with the office they seek to hold.
For example, candidates for governor should clearly state their goals for public education and specify a plan to reach those goals.
Candidates for attorney general who claim to desire justice reform should outline what that looks like and how they’ll get there.
And candidates for the state House should clearly state their philosophy on how and where the state should spend its money.
Is that really asking too much?
Not all candidates are stingy with details. Andrew Gillum, a Democrat running for governor, has more than 3,000 words posted on his website, addressing 10 different issues. You may not agree with his statements, and the volume of words doesn’t necessarily translate into quality of thought. But at least you know where he stands beyond a tweet.
To his credit, DeSantis around midweek had added more to the environment portion of his website, a lot more. Some 1,500 words, altogether. Of course, that followed a news story that questioned why the candidate was spending so much time yakking about national issues on Fox News and so little time outlining his positions on state issues.
The problem is chronic. Take the race for chief financial officer. Many Floridians have no idea what the job entails, so some website detail could go a long way for a curious voter.
But no. The incumbent CFO, Republican Jimmy Patronis, can muster just nine words to describe the three priorities on his website. His Democratic challenger, Jeremy Ring, uses a lot more words that mostly state the obvious but — you see the trend here — never state specifically how or what he plans to do.
We’re not naïve. Many hardcore Democrats and Republicans don’t care what the candidates have on their websites. They’re just concerned with whether the name has a D or an R next to it. Others with party affiliation make a good-faith effort to become better informed. And independents make up an increasingly large portion of the electorate. Voters registered as No Party Affiliation earlier this summer numbered nearly 3.5 million in Florida.
For those who crave information, these websites shouldn’t just offer a plea for money or a place to post candidates’ resumes and photos of their happy families.
Voters deserve more. It doesn’t seem like asking a lot from candidates to spend a few hours thinking about what they’re going to do if they land in the office they’re seeking, and then putting those thoughts into words so voters can make a better-informed decision.
Judging from the quality of today’s candidate websites, maybe it is.
