Campaign has started; here's how we'll cover it

Our Opinion

Friday, July 10, 2009

Monday was the first day candidates could file for a spot on the primary ballot, and two local candidates made official their intentions that day to run for office — one for county commissioner and one for register of wills. During the next year the ballot will fill out, and at stake will be just about every elected political job Charles County voters have a voice in short of president of the United States.

Marylanders will elect a governor, U.S. senator and congressmen. Charles County voters will pick state legislators, county commissioners, a sheriff, a state's attorney and a host of other courthouse offices.

Elections are traditionally lively in the county. Next year's promises to be as well, and the Maryland Independent will cover it every step of the way. We've started already in today's paper, with a roundup of some of those who have filed or say they are likely to throw their hats into the ring, and very soon with profiles of those who formally signed up to kick off their campaigns for the September 2010 primary election.

We'll offer the same coverage to all of the candidates — a short article at the time candidates file or formally announce their campaigns; an article that outlines who they are and why the want the job there are seeking. Throughout the primary election campaign and then on to the November 2010 general election we'll write about the issues and the candidates. As the elections approach, we'll prepare a guide for voters and give each candidate the chance to answer the same questions.

But we'll also continue our long-standing policy of not accepting letters to the editor from the candidates once they have entered the race. The candidates will have plenty of opportunity to make their points in the news columns and plenty of chances to outline their positions at great length in whatever words they choose in campaign literature and on their Web sites. Since we can't verify that letters that come in with a candidate's signature were actually written by them and not a campaign supporter, they don't offer revealing information to voters.

There are exceptions to this rule, however. Letters may be printed when a candidate is replying to editorial criticism from the Independent, disputing news reporting or replying to an inaccurate attack from a letter writer. Such letters of reply will be printed or not at the sole discretion of the editor.

Supporters and critics of particular candidates are welcome to write letters, and a representative sample of all of those received will be published as space permits. Our general rule is that we publish no more than one letter a month from any writer unless the writer is responding to criticism that might have resulted from a previous letter.

Those are the ground rules we'll operate under for almost the next year and a half. We're committed to offering complete and fair election coverage. We'll expect that, as always, our readers will let us know how we're doing.