WASHINGTON - I've never met a dog catcher and I've never voted for one, either. But I constantly meet people who associate all politicians who are not the president or vice president, members of Congress, governors or mayors with dog catchers.

I teach and write about politics, and when I make arguments about state and local politics, I get the dog catcher reference six or seven times out of 10. For example, when I say that citizens need information about political races at the local and state levels more than the federal level, I get this line: "Right. We do need information about these races, right on down to the dog catcher race."

Or this: "Yes, I never know anything about who is running for dog catcher."

Why do so many citizens devalue state and local politics?

Each state, indeed, each county, has the same basic structure as our national government. There is a legislative body and an executive body. At the county level there is a county council (which is like the Congress) and a county executive (which is like the president). At the state level, there is a general assembly (which usually has a house and a senate) and a governor's office.

When citizens go to the polls during a presidential election, they typically cast votes at the state and local levels, too. The same holds for midterm elections, such as the one coming up in November.

Political scientists report frightening figures about how few citizens know the names of their own senators and representatives. At the state and local levels, it can be even worse. Most citizens don't know what state legislative district they live in or that they have their own representatives or senators.

Moreover, many of the political decisions that affect us the most are handled by our state and local politicians, most notably those involving crime, transportation and education. Voters may be more informed about school board races because their children's lives are so directly affected by who is on the school board. Even then, we still have a long way to go.

I have nothing against dog catchers. Where they are public officials, they deserve respect, too. And even where they are not, they still deserve respect. Indeed, a dog catcher can save your child's life, or yours.

But the joke is on us if we regard the vast majority of elected politicians in America as dog catchers. We are only admitting to ourselves that we are irresponsible citizens who don't take the time to understand our political system.

With the advent of the Internet, it is now possible to get much more information about state and local races. The candidates need to put it out there and the voters need to get online to find it. When we cast votes in local and state elections without any real sense of what we are doing (oh, this name sounds good) we are acting like monkeys who can pull levers without any real knowledge about why they are pulling which ones.

Now that the Maryland Court of Appeals has struck down Gov. Parris N. Glendening's redistricting plan, the time is ripe for Maryland citizens to learn more about what state legislative district they are in - which we all should know within a few weeks.

David M. Anderson is an associate research professor at the George Washington University Graduate School of Political Management.