A few individuals have inquired as to our process for choosing candidates. They are the following.
1. We use no issue criteria other than the candidates views on animal issues. To create political power when you are a small interest group, you must use "single issue" voting. If other issues are more important to you than, you will need to get that information somewhere else.
2. We send each candidate a questionnaire which you can look view(B2. below). Some are not returned, but those that are we tabulate.
3.We also assess the strength of a candidate by his campaign presence ie. does he have an office, an organization, or donations. We track his reported donations. Are they large from a few special interests, or small from a large number of people.
4.We also visit the campaign office, if one exists, and assess the enthusiasm, strength and organization of the campaign presence.
5. We factor in past experience with candidates or prior records of voting or sponsorship of animal friendly legislation.
6. We never make decisions based upon party, or ideology. We have supported candidates on both sides of the political spectrum. Although it is a known fact that animal friendly legislators are predominately Democrats, that is no guarantee of a compassionate nature and we have seen democratic legislators push very destructive policies such as the recent firing of Dan Knapp by the Democrat James Hahn.
7.We try to keep abreast of the insider, views and rumors to help us navigate amongst candidates who think they are going to be elected versus those having broad community support. Often times we find a wonderful candidate who we will not support because they have absolutely no chance of wining and we do not want to waste our communities time, resources and votes. Our decisions are reality based, and based on 8 years of living and breathing political realities. We take the faith you place in us seriously and we do all in our power to leverage whatever assistance you will give us to acquire political power for the animals. It is not the animals that will save animals, it is people who will save animals.