How Reason Staffers Are Voting

Get the skinny on who we're backing, backhanding, and ignoring altogether.

Jacob Sullum, Nick Gillespie, Jesse Walker, Brian Doherty, Ronald Bailey, Radley Balko, Jeff Taylor, Katherine Mangu-Ward & David Weigel | November 3, 2006

In the interests of disclosure and transparency, I've asked my staff to tell the world who they plan to vote for (or not) come next Tuesday. Not all wanted to participate, which is fine by me given the context. None of the following comments should be read as an endorsement by the magazine for a particular candidate or piece of legislation. But it's always interesting to see exactly for whom or for what journalists pull the lever. An earlier version of this exercise was "Who's Getting Your Vote? Reason's Revealing Presidential Poll", which we printed just before the 2004 election. --Nick Gillespie

Nick Gillespie, Editor-in-Chief
Residence: Oxford, Ohio and Washington, D.C.
Party affiliation: None
How are you voting?
Despite the enviable position of being able to pick between two jurisdictions in which to vote, I was not motivated to register in either place. As someone who has never voted for a winning candidate at any level of government, the people for whom I would have pulled the lever should feel relieved.

Jesse Walker, Managing Editor
Residence: West Towson, Maryland
Party affiliation: None
How are you voting?
I just moved from Baltimore City to Baltimore County, and have not yet bothered to change my registration. Even if I had, though, I'm not familiar enough with my new neighborhood to have opinions in the local races, and local races are usually the only ones worth voting in.

I have a slight preference for the incumbent governor, the Kempish Republican Bob Ehrlich, over his challenger, a Clinton manque named Martin O'Malley, but I can't bring myself to vote for him -- I don't want to reward his cronyism, or his war on journalists willing to investigate the underside of his administration. Neither major candidate for the Senate impresses me much; if I voted, I suppose it would be for Kevin Zeese, an antiwar activist running on a Green-Libertarian-Populist fusion ticket.

Brian Doherty, Senior Editor
Residence: Los Angeles, California
Party affiliation: None officially, but a fan of the Libertarian Party
How are you voting?
Being a willing participant in the game of assigning the right to control the out-of-control and often monstrous powers of the U.S. government to some politicians strikes me as distasteful--and I also recognize the mathematical facts about how little voting matters in practice. Thus, I abstain from voting for both ethical and pragmatic reasons, and maintain that if you vote, you have no right to complain about the outcome.

Jacob Sullum, Senior Editor
Residence: Dallas, Texas
Registered party affiliation: none
How are you voting?
For U.S. Senate: Scott Lanier Jameson, Libertarian. My way of voting for a divided federal government without voting for a Democrat.

For U.S. Congress: John B. Hawley, Libertarian. Ditto.

For governor: Kinky Friedman, Independent. Why the hell not?

For ballot initiatives and/or state constitutional amendments: Dallas is proposing a dozen bond issues, all of which I’ll vote against in my modest effort to starve the local beast. A few nearby towns are considering propositions that would liberalize sales of alcoholic beverages—but not, unfortunately, Dallas, where bizarre restrictions on where alcohol can be sold require me to make special trips for beer, wine, and liquor.

Radley Balko, Senior Editor
Residence: Alexandria, Virginia
Party affiliation: None officially
How are you voting?
Jim Webb for U.S. Senate.  Right on Iraq.  Takes a "leave us alone" position on social issues.  Those alone make him preferable to George Allen.  Which is good, because Webb is awful on just about everything else.

"None of the above" for Congress.  Much as I'd like to vote against the GOP, I can't bring myself to vote for Jim Moran.  And alas, there's no LP candidate in this race.

I'll be voting no on Question 1, the awful assault on freedom of contract, business, and personal freedom disguised as a "pro-marriage" amendment to the state constitution.

Ronald Bailey, Science Correspondent
Residence: Charlottesville, Virginia
Party affiliation: None
How are you voting?

U.S. Senate: James Webb. Democrat. Because the Republicans must be punished for corruption and incompetence and, of course, the "Macaca" incident.

U.S. Congress: Al Weed. Democrat. His Republican opponent, Virgil Goode, says that Weed favors gay marriage, amnesty for illegal immigrants and socialized medicine. Two out of three ain't bad. And Republicans must be punished.

Ballot Question #1 – Amending State Constitution to Outlaw Gay Marriage. No. The state has no business discriminating against people based on sexual orientation. It could also forbid private companies from offering benefits to domestic partners, gay or straight.