Questions to Ask Local Political Candidates
Twenty questions for a candidate running for city council, school board, county office or mayor. They are aimed at what the office can actually do, how the money works, who is funding the campaign, and how you would check the answers after the election.
The questions
Open any question for the note
Which office are you running for, and what does it actually have the power to do?
Why ask it
Local offices are routinely campaigned on as if they controlled everything. A candidate who can state the seat's real authority, and where it ends, has done the reading; one who promises outcomes set by the state or the county has not.
How many meetings of this body have you sat through in the past year?
Why ask it
Attendance is the cheapest preparation available and most candidates have not done it. Someone who has been in the room knows how long items take, who the swing vote is, and which arguments have already failed.
Which documents have you read: the budget, the last audit, the long-range plan?
Why ask it
These are public and dull, which is why reading them separates serious candidates from enthusiastic ones. Follow up by asking what surprised them in the audit, since that cannot be answered from a summary.
What would you put on the agenda first, and who else has to vote for it?
Why ask it
Nearly nothing at this level passes without a majority, so the second half is the test. Answers that ignore colleagues describe a wish; answers that name likely allies describe a plan.
What could you do in your first three months that does not need anyone else's vote?
Why ask it
Individual members can hold meetings, ask for reports, push staff on responsiveness and publish information. Naming those shows an understanding of the difference between influence and authority.
What is the total budget you would be voting on, and how much of it is already committed?
Why ask it
Most local budgets are largely fixed by salaries, debt service and mandated spending, leaving a small discretionary margin. A candidate who knows that margin will make far more modest promises than one who does not.
Which of your proposals needs money that is not currently there, and where would it come from?
Why ask it
This forces arithmetic onto the platform. Watch for answers that rely on grants, efficiencies or growth, which are real but slow, and note whether they can name the fund or the levy involved.
Would you raise any tax or fee, and if not, what gets cut instead?
Why ask it
The trade-off is unavoidable and the question closes off the option of promising both. Refusing to answer either half is itself a position, and it usually means deferral to whoever holds the seat after them.
Name a decision this body got wrong recently, and tell me how you would have voted.
Why ask it
General criticism of the current officeholders costs nothing. Asking for a specific vote produces either concrete disagreement, which you can evaluate, or a demonstration that they have not followed the body's actual work.
What is your position on new housing or development in this area?
Why ask it
This is where local politics is decided in most places, and candidates often hold deliberately soft positions on it. Push for specifics: which projects, what density, whether they would support a change to the zoning code.
What would you say to neighbors who oppose something you support?
Why ask it
It tests whether they can hold a position under local pressure, which is the main pressure this job involves. Someone who describes a conversation they have already had is more convincing than someone describing the conversation in theory.
Who is funding your campaign, and what is the largest single source?
Why ask it
Contributions are usually public record, so this is checkable afterward. The value of asking in person is the discrepancy: watch whether their account matches the filing you can look up the same evening.
Have you taken money from anyone who does business with the city or district?
Why ask it
Contractors, developers, unions and vendors all have legitimate interests in local decisions and all give to campaigns. A candidate who names them plainly is more trustworthy on this than one who describes support as coming from the community.
What would you recuse yourself from?
Why ask it
Every candidate has an employer, a property, a family business or a board seat that will eventually collide with a vote. Being able to name theirs unprompted suggests they have thought about conflicts before being accused of one.
Where do you disagree with the groups endorsing you?
Why ask it
Endorsements come with expectations, and a candidate who cannot name a single point of difference from any of their backers is telling you how they will vote when those backers ask for something.
What do staff do that residents misunderstand?
Why ask it
Most day-to-day frustration with local government is administrative, not political. A candidate who can explain the permitting queue or the road maintenance cycle understands what they would actually be overseeing.
If I email you with a problem, what happens next, and by when?
Why ask it
Constituent service is most of the job and the promises made about it are rarely specific. A named process, a stated response time, and who else reads the mail are the details that indicate someone who intends to do the unglamorous part.
What can this office not fix, whatever gets promised during a campaign?
Why ask it
School funding formulas, state highways, county courts and utility rates often sit outside local control. A candidate willing to say so is offering you a more accurate picture than one who accepts responsibility for everything.
What have you changed your mind about, and what changed it?
Why ask it
Reversals at local level are usually concrete: a project they opposed and later supported, a budget position that met the actual numbers. The absence of any answer suggests either a short political history or an unwillingness to admit one.
How will we be able to tell in two years whether you did what you said?
Why ask it
This asks for measurable commitments and creates a record you can return to. Write the answer down with the date, and notice whether they offer specific numbers or only a general direction of travel.
Getting useful answers from local candidates
Practical guidance for the conversation itself
Before you ask
Find out what the seat controls
Look up the body's charter or enabling statute, and read one recent agenda. Ten minutes tells you whether the office sets policy, approves budgets, hires an administrator, or mostly advises, and it changes which questions are worth your time.
Ask every candidate the same questions
Comparable answers are the point. Keep the wording identical, note who dodged which question, and resist tailoring the question to the candidate you already favor.
Pick two or three questions, not twenty
At a forum or a doorstep you will get one question, sometimes two. Decide in advance which matter most to you, and keep them short enough that the candidate cannot answer a different question instead.
Bring the specific case
A question about a named intersection, a specific school, or one line in the budget gets a concrete answer. General questions about priorities get the stump speech, which you can already read on the website.
At a forum or on the doorstep
- If the answer does not address the question, say so politely and ask it again in the same words. Once is fair, twice is usually enough for the room to notice.
- Ask for a number or a date. Commitments without either are difficult to check later and easy to abandon.
- Write down the answer as given, not your interpretation of it, along with the date and setting.
- Notice which questions the candidate answers by describing a process rather than a position. That often signals genuine constraint, and sometimes signals avoidance.
- Listen to other residents' questions. Where several people raise the same issue, the candidate's repeated answer is the one they will be held to.
- Do not use your turn to make a speech. A long preamble gives the candidate room to answer whichever part suits them.
Checking afterward
- Campaign finance filings are public in most jurisdictions. Compare the list of donors with what you were told about who is funding the campaign.
- Meeting minutes and vote records are usually online. For incumbents, check the votes rather than the mailer.
- Ask the clerk's office for the budget document and the most recent audit. Both are public and both contradict a fair amount of campaign material.
- Keep your notes until the next election. Local terms are short, and specific promises with dates attached are the easiest thing to follow up on.
- After the vote, send the winner a short note with the question you asked and their answer. It is a reasonable way to open a constituent relationship, whoever you supported.