Serving Lincoln County for more than a century!
Serving Lincoln County for more than a century!
DAVENPORT—A quick look through this week’s issue of The Record-Times indicates one fact quite clearly: it is election season.
Stories about interim sheriffs, candidate forums and county and city business dot the pages this week, with plenty of graduation and Mule Days coverage to ease any tension or rising blood pressure one might feel from reading about local politics too much…ha!
As I feel the paper and county residents have made clear, the upcoming August primary is the most consequential primary election in Lincoln County in quite some time.
There will be a new sheriff and treasurer elected from the current office holders no matter how you shake it, and plenty of names are hoping to fill those spots.
Local groups are ramping up their efforts for residents to get to know candidates further, including separate candidate forums hosted by the Republican Central Committee and Davenport Chamber of Commerce discussed in an article this week.
It’s also important that these candidates get their share of print coverage and their opportunity to discuss current issues and opinions with the local media. To that end, you’ll notice in the weeks leading up to the primary election that page 5 will feature candidate profiles. This week, that kicks off with Brian Telford, who is running for sheriff, and Rob Coffman, who is running for re-election as county commissioner.
You’ll see coverage of all partisan candidates, both opposed and unopposed, before Election Day in August.
We’re starting by profiling candidates in contested races, which will occur in the five issues prior to the Chamber’s candidate forum July 14. The math works out well, with five candidates for sheriff and five total candidates between the treasurer and commissioner races. Two candidates will be profiled each week.
Candidates running unopposed will be featured in the issues after the July 14 forum.
While under these guidelines, we chose the order of candidate profiles completely randomly. Quite literally, in fact, we “spun a wheel” online in efforts to be as impartial as possible.
We won’t be endorsing local candidates this year, leaving the choice entirely up to you: the voter.
Yours truly will be writing the profiles on candidates for sheriff, while reporter Ashley Parkinson will cover candidates for commissioner and treasurer.
Now that you know our thought process, I encourage you to check out our profiles in the "News" tab and begin reading about the candidates hoping to be elected this summer, and later, fall. Happy reading, and happy voting!
Drew Lawson is the former managing editor of the Davenport Times and a graduate of Eastern Washington University.
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