After a recent move to Mesquite, Texas, I had to change my voter registration to reflect my new address, and was pleased to see my new voter registration card when it arrived in the mail this morning. I was less pleased, however, when I found out that I'm now living in the 5th congressional district, which is currently represented by that putrid bag of flatulence, Jeb Hensarling. More disconcerting, however, is what I found out when I pulled up the sample ballot for Dallas County: Hensarling doesn't have a Democratic challenger this election cycle. He does have a Libertarian running against him (Ken Ashby), but there's no progressive alternative on the ballot.
This happens far too often down here in Texas, where Republicans have been ascendant for the last several years. Consequently, we Texas Democrats, more often than not, find ourselves faced with a dilemma: do we vote for a third-party candidate, even if that candidate isn't as progressive as we'd like him/her to be, to register our disapproval of the Republican? Or do we not vote at all? It's even worse when a Republican is running unopposed, because there's no fallback option.
I never vote a straight Democratic ticket, partly because there are a few Democrats that I would never vote for (we occasionally get a Larouche nutjob or two who shows up on the ballot as a Dem), but mostly because if you do so, you end up not casting a vote in races where there's no Democrat on the ballot. I just don't like the idea of not fully exercising my right to vote, even if casting a vote in a particular race means doing so for someone who I'm not in full agreement with on the issues. My general rule of thumb, in the absence of a good (or good enough) Democrat to vote for, is to vote for the Green candidate if there is one, or a progressive alternative if there's not. Barring that, I'll vote for the Libertarian. The only time I won't vote is if there's a Republican running unopposed (side note: we could really use a "none of the above" option on the ballot - but that's another diary altogether). This year, it doesn't look like we have any Greens on the ballot, or at least none that I've seen, and the only third-party candidates appear to all be Libertarians. So I guess Ken Ashby will be getting my vote in the congressional race (ugh).
So, my fellow Kossacks, what do the rest of you do when there's not a Democrat to vote for in a particular race?