Gear up for key decisions about your town, schools

In a very real sense, democracy is a 24/7/365 enterprise. We may vote only once or twice a year, but knowing how to vote — that is, whom we want to vote for — requires some attention.

Few people want to give elections that much focus, though, and that's where newspapers come in. It would be incorrect to say that we do the research so you don't have to, but we do a lot of research that can really help you. This is especially true for the upcoming municipal and school elections.

These votes are among the most important you will make in terms of determining your quality of life, the way your children are educated, the amount of taxes you'll pay and the condition of the roads you drive on and the neighborhood you live in. But there will be no high-cost advertising programs to introduce you to the candidates you have to choose from. You won't hear their speeches on radio and television.

You will learn about them here, in the local newspaper and on our website, dailyherald.com.

At this stage of the elections, you probably know more about the race for mayor of Chicago than about the race for mayor in your own town. By the time you get to vote on April 5, we hope to have changed that.

That's not to say that we'll have a story a day about every race in every one of the nearly 100 towns where we circulate. But we are making efforts to provide you critical information that will help you make an informed decision about the people who will lead your town and your schools.

Editors are lining up endorsement interviews so the paper can get to know the candidates better. Reporters are contacting candidates and developing stories and profiles. And, many of the candidates themselves will provide information directly to you through questionnaires they've filled out about themselves and the issues important to them.

These questionnaires form the centerpiece of our local-election coverage, and include each candidate's background, political and community involvement and positions on topics of local interest.

Eventually, they will provide the basis for many of the local stories we write about specific races, and they'll be available for you to study online.

That is, at least for the candidates who've completed and returned them. Some candidates invariably ignore our requests, and some we've been unable to reach. If you're one of the latter and want the opportunity to interact directly with voters, send me your e-mail address as soon as possible and I'll see that you get a questionnaire for your race.

As for local voters, you're no doubt often drawn into passionate discussions about health care, immigration, the war in Afghanistan, the federal deficit and a host of other national topics. But, as important as all those issues are, you don't have nearly as direct or as immediate an influence on them as you can have over the amount of local taxes you pay and the quality of government and schools those taxes support. So, I hope you're starting to learn now who is running for office in your town and beginning to assess which candidates offer the most promising leadership.

You may not be able — or even want — to give them your constant attention, but when you need information to better help you make that assessment, we'll have some key research ready for you.

Ÿ Jim Slusher is an assistant managing editor at the Daily Herald.