I normally teach State & Local Government as well as American Government, and believe that this should be an area of high political awareness for people because the more local the government is the greater the impact on your everyday life. Strangely, most people focus least on this area - for many reasons, media coverage goes to national news, confusion about the structure of government and simply being overwhelmed with the size & complexity of it. I think that many of us feel that there is little that we can do to change things, but guess what? We have an election coming up here. The primary is February 2 - you can pick the candidate of your choice to run in the general election.
Locally we need to think about who our Governor, Lt. Governor, Treasurer & judges are going to be, as well as a national election for a Congressional reps and we have a senate seat that needs to be filled. You can do your research on the candidates by looking at sites like: Project Vote Smart www.votesmart.org
This site gives you background information on the candidate, how they have voted in the past (if in a legislative position) and also gives interest group ratings. Are you a feminist? Look at how the League of Women Voters rated the candidate. Interested in right to bear arms (or not) - check out the rating by the National Rifle Association (NRA).
They also rate judges.
Check this page on the Chicago Tribune web site - you can enter your address and it tells you what offices are up for election: http://elections.chicagotribune.com/
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