We’ve begun interviewing candidates for the Fresno City Council as part of our recommendations process for the June primary election. Scott Miller, who wants to replace Tom Boyajian in District 1, met with our Editorial Board today. The other candidates in the race are Cliff Archer, Charles “Chuck” Riojas, Alan Michael Schroeder and Blong Xiong. They will meet with us over the next several days.
The only other council race in Fresno is in District 3 where incumbent Cynthia Sterling is being challenged by Ignacio C. Garibay and Manuel Toledo.
We’ve already interviewed candidates for Fresno County sheriff and Fresno County superintendent of schools. We've also seen a handful of the statewide candidates so far. Our goal is to have our recommendations in the newspaper well before the election.
The Editorial Board meetings allow us to ask in-depth questions and hear the candidates’ proposals and vision for the jobs they are seeking. In addition, Editorial Board members attend some forums and debates, review the candidates' literature, view or listen to their political advertisements and talk to their supporters and opponents. We also read the news stories covering the many races.
Then the five-member board meets to decide which candidates we will recommend to voters in a series of editorials that will begin running before the election. The Editorial Board includes Publisher Ray Steele Jr., Deputy Editorial Page Editor Russ Minick and Associate Editors Gail Marshall and Lisa Maria Boyles. As editorial page editor, I chair the board.
I'm going to refer to a previous column I wrote explaining the election editorials that we write: “They are merely our opinions -- we hope they persuade readers -- but you are free to accept or reject the positions we take, just as you may agree or disagree with our editorials on school policy or national defense.
“We hope they become part of the community debate, and that they spur our readers to think deeply about the public-policy issues we raise and the people who want to become our leaders.
“Some readers say they adamantly oppose anything we support. That's OK by us. We appreciate them taking the time to write or call. Opinions are what we deal with on the editorial page, and we learn from those who disagree with us.
“We also get calls around election time from some readers asking when we are going to publish our recommendations so they can vote against the candidates we recommend. Some may follow them precisely, while others may pick and choose.”
Blog Roll
In The Middle- Blognetnews.com/California
- Bill Bradley's New West Notes
- The Hotline's Blogometer
- Rough & Tumble
- PolitickerCA
- Fresno Bee Opinion Page
- fresnobee.com
- Huffington Post
- Daily Kos
- Red State
- Flash Report
Local Media
On The Left
On The Right