After several weeks of publishing profiles on candidates and covering the issues on next Tuesday’s ballot, our election preview coverage concludes today.
I admire our news team’s work. We reached out to dozens of candidates and local officials across the county. We wrote extensively about the $9.95 million courthouse bond issue, as well as the $5.95 million bond proposal for Crest USD 479.
We interviewed all ten USD 258 board candidates and profiled city council hopefuls for LaHarpe, Moran, and Iola, as well as the USD 257 board members up for reelection. This week, we published articles on the candidates for Allen Community College’s board of trustees.
We sponsored an October 10 community forum at the courthouse about the proposed renovations and additions. Not to sell voters on the idea, but because the public has a right to know.
Some will quibble over what we wrote. I suppose that’s inevitable. But I believe we did our best to inform voters.
WHY DO all this work of organizing, writing, taking photos? Why not just email out a questionnaire and print verbatim what candidates send back? Four reasons come to mind:
1. An on-the-record interview shows our readers how candidates think. They’re not able to spend hours crafting a perfect response. If they dodge a question, we can address it.
