Before voting, test your candidate knowledge

TODAY THE primary campaign ends. It's time to go to the polls.

But do you really deserve to vote?

We treat voting as a right, not a responsibility -- and that's lucky, because as far as I can tell, a significant portion of the population puts more energy into staying current with the TV show ``24" or following the latest tensions on ``The View" than into deciding who would best govern the state.

Certainly there's a yawning chasm between the earnest young bloggers who have followed every twist and turn in this campaign and your average person on the street.

Oh, I know, I know, there are excuses aplenty. Politicians are all bums or hacks or liars. There are no differences between them. Voting won't change anything, anyway.

I've heard it all -- and it's all bunk.

Those are not legitimate justifications for tuning out, but rather rationalizations for civic laziness.

So are you an informed citizen?

Well, here's a little test about the Democratic gubernatorial primary, where most of the action has been.

One candidate says the income tax should be cut back to 5 percent immediately to honor the voters' verdict from 2000. Another maintains that the income tax can't be cut right now because Massachusetts needs to spend more on infrastructure, services, and local aid. The third insists we can phase in a tax cut over four years or so without squeezing important state spending.

Can you match the man with the stand?

The three candidates have different styes and political pitches.

Here's a (puckish) pastiche of each.

Democrat #1: Look, folks, being governor is serious business. It's serious business. The people of Massachusetts know that. They're smart. Politics isn't my strong suit, but they know I have a record of accomplishment. The governor's office is not for sale, folks. It can't be bought. It's on the third floor. That's why you need someone who rents a second-floor apartment, someone used to climbing lots of stairs. You need someone from a street just like yours, someone who will fight to get average working people a tax cut now, someone who has released his tax returns because he knows it's all about openness, folks, it's all about openness.

Democrat #2: Now, we can talk all day about the issues, but frankly that won't make any difference if we don't have a stake in each other. When I was growing up, Miss Jones from down the block would go upside your head if you messed up and didn't study hard so you could go to Harvard and work for Bill Clinton and Texaco and Coke and get rich and then launch a people's crusade that's about you, not me, saying no to politics as usual. Leadership is about being the first to endorse Cape Wind, despite grumpy old Ted Kennedy, who, by the way, hasn't released his tax returns either. So if you want this state to get up off its knees and start investing in ourselves rather than cutting taxes, take a chance on hope, because frankly it's not up to me, it's up to you, and when I win, you win, and together we can replace cynicism with visionary leadership.

Democrat Number 3: If I had to sum myself up in one word -- not that I've ever summed anything up in one word, but if I had to, right? -- that single word would be ``a long history of results." Results, results, results. See those cute kids in my ad? Five in seven years; now, that's what I call results. I don't care if those kids are Republican kids or Democratic kids, as long as they work around the house. I hold them accountable, and if you elect me governor, I expect to be held accountable, too. I'm going to make sure they all spend more time in school, so they can go to college and do stem-cell research and power our innovation economy. Unless one of them turns out to be an illegal immigrant, that is. So if you want results -- and a responsible tax cut -- let's get going.

In both instances, the first candidate is Tom Reilly, the second is Deval Patrick, the third Chris Gabrieli.

Did you pass the quiz?

If not, well, maybe it's time to buy a subscription to the Globe -- ah, make that, time to pay more attention -- now that the general election is about to begin.

Scot Lehigh's e-mail address is lehigh@globe.com.