One thing that is particularly frustrating is the general ignorance and lack of engagement most voters have with local races. It's pretty common for voters to simply vote for incumbents in those offices, unless there is something particularly attention-grabbing.
Case in point is
our own racist, sexist asshole county sheriff. He ran for congress in 2016 on a pro-Trump platform against a Democrat in my own district. He was defeated and sent back to being the county sheriff again. I've heard him on local public radio (being interviewed) opposing the state and city statuses. And he's responsible for the sheriff's department refusing to enforce the county (and state) mask order. I doubt he's on board with white terrorist plots to kidnap our governor, but I wouldn't put it past him to mealymouth his way out of condemning such a group openly were they to do something like that here.
But he won re-election in 2018 quite handily. I don't think it's because most of the folks in our county are okay with racism (in fact, our county is pretty diverse). It's simply ignorance. If they don't remember his platform from when he ran for congress (if they even remember that he is the same guy who ran for congress that most of them voted against), and don't listen to Beth Ruyack interviews on Capital Public Radio to hear his subtle, dogwhistle racism, they go with the path of least resistance, since crime has been down in the county in recent years and he's not running on an overtly racist platform.
I've been trying to better inform myself in recent years about the candidates in local races, from the parks commission to the sheriff to the county planners and judges etc. It's not always easy, as these candidates don't get the coverage the statewide candidates and propositions do, and some of them don't even have searchable platforms or statements on the web.
