The Valley Reporter welcomes the rituals of fall as well as the ritual of campaign season 2006.
In an effort to provide fair coverage to all candidates, here are a few ground rules for the coming season.
Candidates are allowed to (and invited to) provide a press release about themselves, their candidacy, issues and record. They are welcome to provide a picture as well. Ideally, these releases will focus on the candidate and their issues. Bashing opponents is not appropriate here.
Bashing candidates and praising candidates is fine, but not in the letters to the editor section of The Valley Reporter. Due to space constraints, The Valley Reporter does not publish letters of endorsement or anti-endorsement.
It's not fair to the candidates, creates a never-ending series of rebuttals and is not good use of the space designed for an exchange of ideas and issues from community members.
Once an incumbent has announced, their regular columns and submittals (From the Statehouse) are suspended. To do otherwise would give incumbents unfair advantage.
The Valley Reporter, with Mad River Valley Television, will host a candidates' forum to which all candidates for this year's Washington County Senate race will be invited. That coverage, and news stories leading up to it, will be designed to let voters see firsthand who the candidates are and what they stand for.
Public input in the forum is welcome and questions are encouraged. Valley Reporter readers are invited to offer comments on what issues are relevant during this election and why.
Readers are welcome to suggest questions for candidates for all offices and welcome to raise those questions on our pages.
Let the games begin.
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