With the presidential election dominating national headlines this week, we thought it would be a good time to talk about our plans for covering local elections.
In the lead up to Nov. 5, our general assignment reporters will be interviewing the candidates who seek to represent the residents of Lincoln County in the Maine House of Representatives and the Maine Senate as well as the candidates for the Lincoln County Board of Commissioners and judge of probate.
We make every attempt to conduct these interviews in person, as it provides a consistent format and a more personal setting. Similar to candidates going door to door in an effort to connect with the people they hope to represent, sitting down and having a conversation is a better way to get to know the people running for office than asking questions over email.
Beginning in the Aug. 29 edition with the candidates running unopposed for their respective offices, the profiles, as well as a headshot of each candidate, will appear on the front page of the paper. We currently plan to rerun all candidate profiles in the Oct. 31 edition, the last newspaper before the Nov. 5 election.
We are in the early stages of planning forums for the Maine House and Senate candidates, which will be conducted in a similar format to the 2022 forums. After brief introductions by all of the candidates, a question will be posed to the group and each person will be given a few minutes to respond.
We have found that the individuals running for state and local offices have always been polite and considerate at these forums, listening to answers from their opponents and sometimes building off of a thought presented.
Like in 2022, we will not be taking questions from the audience during the forum. Rather, we welcome suggestions about what topics you would like us to ask the candidates about. Like our letters to the editor policy, local/state matters will receive priority over national policies.
We’ll have more to say about the forums once we hear back from candidates regarding their availability in September and October.
We will cover a single event for each political party. A reporter will attend the Lincoln County Democratic Committee’s Family Fun Day Lobster Bake on Sunday, Aug. 4 and the Lincoln County Republican Committee’s Great American Picnic on Saturday, Aug. 10.
In all our efforts, we will strive to be consistent in how we treat the candidates from all points on the political spectrum.
If you have a question – or even a topic you would like us to shape a question around – email it to editor@lcnme.com.
