Aside from punditry, keeping our coming primaries in perspective

There were precious few off-year elections around the country last week, but those we saw produced a bounty of analysis, punditry and political hand-wringing. Perhaps more than anything, this is a sign of the tensions governing our election politics these days.

It is also a sign of how you may want to be wary as you follow political news leading up to the spring primaries, including that on March 17 in Illinois — and after them, the campaign leading up to the truly consequential November midterms, which will determine the power dynamics in Washington for the remainder of the Trump administration.

The signature race of the week, of course, was the election of Zohran Mamdani as mayor of New York City. Depending on the source and the speaker, that result could reflect everything from the nation’s plunge into antisemitic economic socialism to a national statement on President Donald Trump’s immigration policies.

As prominent as New York City may be, it is hard to imagine that the isolated outcome from that single location presages things to come throughout the nation. And, yet, it is easy to see at the same time how, in a divided country filled with people on tenterhooks whatever their political leanings, readers automatically reflect on the potential meaning of every development.

Thus, the election of governors in New Jersey and Virginia, surprising only by degree, not outcome, stirred a similar range of analysis, and even a race as comparatively low and nationally insignificant as Virginia attorney general offered fodder for predictions that the Democratic Party — considered moribund and wayward only days earlier — had risen from the ashes of anti-Trump displeasure.

The overwhelming success of California’s vote to sidestep the state’s system of fairly drawing congressional district boundaries in order to allow a Democratic majority legislature to redraw them to favor their party then added fuel to the speculations.

Maybe there is some truth in such ruminations, and they certainly deserve reflection and study. But we also should be looking for news coverage that is nuanced to local needs and goals as county, state and congressional campaigns begin to heat up in coming weeks. And, we need to be concentrating on the relative strengths and weaknesses of those candidates rather than on their position in the “horse race” of their campaign or of broader national politics.

Keep that in mind as you evaluate the people who will be seeking your vote. We should do the same as we prepare our coverage.

• Jim Slusher, jslusher@dailyherald.com, is managing editor for opinion at the Daily Herald. Follow him on Facebook at www.facebook.com/jim.slusher1 and on X at @JimSlusher. His book “To Nudge The World: Conversations, community and the role of the local newspaper” is available at eckhartzpress.com.