I'm with Kendall (above) about the silly idea of "voting for the man (woman), not the party"!

No holder of a significant office is an individual. (S)he is a group of relationships and obligations. (S)he "owes" people who contributed to the cost of the campaign if it's an elected office; (S)he "owes" the particular part of the electorate who voted for him/her or the official or body who appointed him/her; (S)he has to think about pleasing those who may help with campaign finance in the future; (S)he has to think about pleasing those who may be induced to vote for or reappoint him/her in the future.

Then too, (s)he has to have a staff, who will have heavy input into both the perception of factual basis for official actions and the conversion of his/her perceived facts into policies. That staff will likely be picked from or with the influence of a body of like-minded people on public policy (what we call--Surprise!--a party).

If the official is a legislator, then (s)he has to work within the organizational setup of his/her legislative body, and realistically speaking that means maintaining relationships with like-minded groups of legislators, and party affiliation is the relation-organizing mechanism. If the official is a mayor, or a governor, or the President of the United States, (s)he has to seek support and consider the positions of groups in the relevant legislative body for his/her governmental unit in order to get things done. And that is done largely through the relationships of--Surprise again!--a party.

No matter how respectable or how good his character or judgment might be (or seem), no significant public officer exercises his/her public functions based merely on what his/her outlook or druthers might have been were he/she merely a member of the public. In order to (hopefully) predict what a prospective officeholder might do if elected or appointed, it is necessary to see him/her as a composite creature, reflecting all the debts, obligations, associations, friendships, and other relationships he/she would bring to the office or would find there.

"I just vote for the maaaaaaaan"?   Ridiculous.

Dave Oesterreich