By Susan Nightingale, President & Founder of PolitiView.com
Where do good ideas come from?
As often as not, they come from anger and frustration. From hitting a brick wall and figuring there’s got to be a way over it or a way around it. And that’s how PolitiView.com was born.
During the last mid-term elections, I was the media person on a congressional campaign in Illinois. Having worked on many political campaigns, I have become fairly skilled at sizing up the quality of the candidate rather quickly. And soon after joining the campaign, I realized I was working for one of the best candidates I had ever seen. Smart, experienced, hardworking, well-educated and politically courageous she was. But she had one more magic ingredient – she was genuinely empathic to the struggles of ordinary people. Because of her own humble beginnings, she spoke to people in an authentic way about their daily struggles to support their families and keep a roof over their heads. This was a key factor at a time when the congressional district was facing an economic tsunami. Had she been elected, she would have gone to Washington and fought to help her constituents improve their lives.
But, as befalls many a candidate, she didn’t have the money it takes to run a campaign. Sure, she spent time “dialing for dollars.” However, she wasn’t independently wealthy or a party insider and she wasn’t the recipient of big money bundlers. In fact, she had quit her job to run for public office and had spent a year driving all over the district to meet and speak with voters.
You know how this ends of course – she lost. But she was a serious, substantive candidate. However, without the big bucks in her war chest, it proved very hard to get her name known in the district. But I came away determined that things had to change.
And I knew the answer lay on the Internet. There had to be a tool to empower voters to compare candidates in a more accessible and effective way. After much thought, that notion became the site you are now on.
At PolitiView.com, we take pride in the fact that this is a totally nonpartisan venture. Any candidate from any political party can and should subscribe. A robust political debate ensures a better government for all of us.
And I hope, whether you are a voter, candidate or any stakeholder in our democracy, that you find PolitiView.com to be of considerable help as you negotiate this political system that we have been so fortunate to inherit.