Do you vote for a person or for a ticket?

[Wilkin]

Back story:

After talking to my brother this weekend, I found out that when he heard that the talk radio station I listen to (NJ 101.5) had the republican frontrunner for governor (Chris Christie) this November on one of their shows, he immediately started to bash them for being a right-wing radio station and asked me to change the station. That was a really long sentence.

If you aren't from New Jersey or don't know of its politics, out current governor (Jon Corzine) is pretty disliked in a lot of ways, most noticeably because of his recently proposed budget for 2010. Thus said, all (I think) the personalities on the station are not fans of him and are trying to start public protest to change the budget. To my brother, their dislike for a democrat instantly makes them republicans, and thus, he doesn't like them.

It mildly pisses me off that someone could be so blind to one party. He votes for a party, not for the individuals. I'm not saying some of the republicans don't fit into his stereotypes, but he doesn't give a single one the chance to be a better representative. He even admits that he's incredibly intolerant on the matter, and it makes me even madder that he's okay with it.

To be honest, I don't consider myself loyal to any party. I want to vote for the people who are right for the job. In the past election, I voted democratic for president and senator, but republican for assemblyman. Why? Because the only way to change our government efficiently is to change our representatives, which included getting rid of the democratic incumbent, and obviously trying to do it on the county level would be much more practical than being one out of millions.

My brother doesn't recognize this. He will blindly vote down the democratic column until the day he dies, and that's the most ignorant thing a voter can do. I asked him why he doesn't like the republican frontrunner, and he said because of his policies. I asked him about that, and he couldn't give me an answer. He didn't have any other reason off the top of his head. He asked me why, if the current governor is so unpopular, couldn't another democrat run? Realistically, the party's going to stick by the incumbent, and anyone who would even want to is way too late in the game to try now.

I have no idea who I'm going to vote for governor. The current one is basically just running a re-election campaign, and the other choice is part of a party that I've been brought to think of as ultra-american to a fault and want to oppress social change that I'm for.

The point is, when you step into the voting booth, do you actually look at the names in the columns, or only the fact that there are names in your party's? If you do vote strictly for one party, elaborate a bit, because listening my brother discriminate against my radio station because they're anti-Corzine (not necessarily pro-Christie) is ridiculous to me.