This is a big election year. There will be records broken all over the United States for voter turnout, individual campaign contributions and campaign volunteer hours. The public has gotten involved at levels never seen before. But the way it seems on television, you wouldn't know there is much more than a Presidential race and a question about the balance of power in Congress.

Unfortunately, while there are thousands of races for city council, state legislative seats, ballot measures and school board all across our country, the local TV stations have given them short shrift. When you consider that it is your school board, your city council and your state legislature that is going to impact your day to day life more than who is in the White House, it's a real shame that so little attention is devoted to local issues.

The Democratic Party has released its national platform and includes a healthy plank about media and democracy, according to TV Week. The platform reportedly includes support for a number of issues we at Common Cause have been advocating for. These include:

Net Neutrality,
Clarifying broadcasters' public interest obligations, and
Increasing the diversity of the ownership of the media

It also calls for the creation of what would probably be a cabinet-level position of Chief Technology Officer, which sounds like a very good idea. Right now we are deeply concerned that nobody is in charge of the digital TV transition, but if there was a CTO, that person would ultimately be responsible.

We commend the Democratic Party for embracing these goals. We look forward to seeing what the Republican Party platform says as well as what Senator McCain's media platform is.