Talk:2023 Portland, Maine mayoral election

Partisan affiliations
There is nothing added to the article by including the partisan affiliation of certain politicians. This is a non-partisan race and none of those mentioned hold any official position in any party that has been made public. Including the affiliation of certain politicians and not others could be perceived as partisanship. User:Namiba 22:52, 26 September 2022 (UTC)


 * If there are reliable sources attesting to their party affiliation, they should absolutely be included. It is a disserve to both readers and voters to pretend that parties don't exist and everyone stands by themselves totally removed from actual policies and politics. Even if the ballot doesn't list parties next to names, these people are politicians who do things like make their affiliation known and seek endorsements from local party organizations because that informs voters! The election itself being nonpartisan does not mean its participants are, and party affiliation is the single most important thing that indicates political positions, so listing only names makes readers and voters less informed about the potential impact of the election. Reywas92Talk 23:17, 26 September 2022 (UTC)


 * If someone is running in a non-partisan election they should not be described as a member of a party. Party membership functions to advance elections, and if the election is non-partisan we should not muddy things by describing a person in connection with it as having a party affiliation.John Pack Lambert (talk) 17:49, 27 September 2022 (UTC)

If a canidate has a wiki page and the page talks about "So and So is a Democrat" or "So and So is a Green" that makes sense in that context. In this election none of the runners have a party next to them on the ballot and the local Democratic party is NOT endorsing anyone. It should not be on the page, its not providing any real info. None of these people are running as THE DEMOCRAT in the race. I say remove it Generaluser11 (talk) 13:15, 7 September 2023 (UTC)
 * It is absolutely providing "real" info. Most people reading this page don't know if these people are liberal or conservative or what. Also, "it's not listed on the ballot" is a weird argument. The ballot doesn't list their occupation, should we remove that as well? BottleOfChocolateMilk (talk) 20:29, 7 September 2023 (UTC)
 * you are moving the goal post, what party they are in doesn't tell us their politics. The key here is they are NOT endorsed by party's they are not running as party members. People can and should expand that so and so is running on x and y, thats fine. Generaluser11 (talk) 22:39, 8 September 2023 (UTC)
 * Someone's party affiliation gives a ton of information about what their policies are like! "Is this person liberal or conservative" is the main question people ask in a nonpartisan election! BottleOfChocolateMilk (talk) 02:45, 9 September 2023 (UTC)

Since Namiba is trying to remove information again and solicit input again, I will provide it again: party affiliation is the single most relevant fact a voter can have in an election. Even if that is not provided on the ballot, and even if all candidates are part of the same party, it is still an important aspect of the election. Ballotpedia has an analysis of this – it notes that of 2022's major city elections, only four were partisan. But does that mean parties simply don't exist in the rest of them? Absolutely not! If there are pertinent sources that provide this information about the candidates running, it should absolutely be included – finds it relevant to note, and so should we. If this were a better article, it would have even more prose information about the campaign and major issues raised and discussed by the candidates, and that prose would certainly include something mentioning that several candidates may be ideologically similar, all Democrats. 2022 Austin mayoral election helpfully says "Though the election is officially nonpartisan, the runoff candidates, Celia Israel and Kirk Watson, are both affiliated with the Democratic Party. Jennifer Virden, who was third place, had a reputation of being conservative." 2022 San Jose mayoral election notes the candidates' parties despite them not appearing on the ballot. But even without that sort of section written yet, party should be included, and I remain baffled why less information would be better here. Reywas92Talk 18:59, 18 October 2023 (UTC)
 * If partisan affiliation is used in reliable sources, then I think it makes sense to use them. Though, this is probably not a useful policy for other countries. E.g., in non-partisan municipal elections in Canada, partisanship isn't as important as policies, and endorsements, as different coalitions exists locally. I think it does make sense in the US though, where the two party system is so entrenched. -- Earl Andrew - talk 20:18, 18 October 2023 (UTC)

Potential candidates
Wikipedia is an encyclopedia, not a newspaper or elections site. Removing sourced information because the source published six months ago, is very inappropriate.--User:Namiba 18:28, 16 March 2023 (UTC)