Terry Said:

If the Tea Party is not republican why are all their Candidates running for office republican?

We Answered:

Because they're a fringe sect of the Republican Party. No other explanation but the truth.

Delores Said:

Who wants to take me on in a debate over the current candidates running for office?

We Answered:

I just wanna see a post of the debates somewhere because it would be funny to see someone taking the McCain/Palin position.

Jorge Said:

How has television influenced the types of candidates running for office at any given time?

We Answered:

In the positive sense; people in the past that didn't know who candidates were probably are aware of who more of the candidates are; at least the top 5 or 6 candidates: Hillary; Barack; McCain, Romney, etc.

I think there are still many lesser-known candidates even I don't know as much as I should: Vilsack for example. I think much of it is b/c of TV being one of the major campaign strategies and that is that you have to have so many millions to run since TV is so expensive, and if you don't you wind up dropping out. It's a shame, because so many experienced candidates seem not to run or have to drop out.

That's another thing: TV seems to benefit the more attractive and actually less-experienced candidate it seems. Look at Obama and Edwards. I think most of us would agree they are attractive and they have only 2 and 4 years experience; not that much experience. But if you have a lot of experience like Joe Biden with 30 years experience, it's hard to answer a question in 30-45 seconds which is what is often required in a lot of current interview shows today (short interviews for today's ADD generation I guess).

Victor Said:

What website can I go to to learn more about the Florida candidates running for office?

We Answered:

I like these two:

http://www.opencongress.org/wiki/Wiki_Ho…

You can click on Representatives or Senators to find out info on them, unfortunately this is incumbents only.

This is good too, again, it's incumbents only:

http://maplight.org/us-congress/legislat…

Rita Said:

Where can I find good and correct information regarding candidates running for office?

We Answered:

If you want to review voting records, try Thomas (thomas.loc.gov). There are also a ton of books that you can buy. Try "Congressional Voting Scores and Interest Group Ratings." I'm not sure if DC is it's only location but if there is a Politics and Prose near you just go there and they have every resource you could hope for and their sales people are generally very informative/helpful.

Hope this helps.

Michael Said:

why do the candidates running for office insist on smearing the opponent in commercials?

We Answered:

If you listen closes to the democrats and republican candidates, you will find that many of them are very vague and evasive about stating their positions. They are playing politics. What a pity! You can't even get a straight answer about issues from some of these cats. Are they that useless that they have to resort to name-calling to get votes. How do they expect people to vote for them if they don't know what they stand for. This is pathetic!

Mitchell Said:

What are some ways that political parties act in-service to candidates running for office?

We Answered:

First, they donate money.

They arrange for endorsements and appearances by popular, proven successful members of the same party.

They provide resources, like voter lists, phone banks and volunteers.