Voters want more information on issues

Go figure. Wisconsin voters want to hear more about the issues that are important to them.

One Wisconsin Now conducted a poll earlier this month and it showed some interesting things about "undecided" voters in the governor's race.

Percentage Saying Issues Receiving "Too Little" Attention Among Voters Undecided in Governor's Race

Health Care 58%
Jobs and Economy 42%
Education 42%
Campaign donations 15%
Georgia Thompson/Travel case 8%

It would be nice if these results compelled more newspapers and television stations to do in depth coverage of the health care crisis facing our state and nation. But I'm not going to hold my breathe.

Newspapers and TV go for the racy headlines of trials and campaign donations when it comes to front page news. And while I would say some papers are doing better than they have in past for volume of election coverage, most of the issue articles are page three in the local section and only run for a day. Trials or campaign donations generate a new story every time someone new issues a statement on the topic.

And while readers may very well read the stories with the racy headlines, they usually want more on issues like health care.

Unfortunately, if they want more information on where the candidates stand on the issues they care about, they have to go and find it themselves. They rarely get it from reading the newspaper or watching TV news. Each race for the senate and assembly in this area is given one story where the candidates are sort of compared to each other. The only way other stories make it into the paper is if there is some sort of scandal in the race.

For example, today the Wisconsin State Journal has a small article about the candidates in the 44th Assembly District. It has about eleven paragraphs and I'm sure that's all we will see on that race before election day. But an article about a Packer being on probation warranted about nineteen paragraphs.

Until the press starts really covering the elections that will determine the makeup of an entire branch of our government, you can't really expect the voters to be well-informed or happy about the decisions they are making when voting.

But the newspapers won't cover that scandal.