The leaves have started changing colors all around us so that means the nuts have started falling out of the trees and into campaigns for elected office.

With so many prestigious titles up for grabs this year (governor, U.S. representative, most likely to get snarled in a sexting scandal), the voting public needs to fully understand just what the heck these would-be office-holders stand for. You'll hear or read a whole of mess of sound bites filled with buzzwords from candidates over the next few weeks, so I'm providing the following guide as a public service to help you understand exactly what these folks are saying out of both sides of their mouths: