The following is presented as part of The Columbian’s Opinion content, which offers a point of view in order to provoke thought and debate of civic issues. Opinions represent the viewpoint of the author. Unsigned editorials represent the consensus opinion of The Columbian’s editorial board, which operates independently of the news department.
For political junkies in Washington, this is like opening day of baseball season — everybody can dream that this is their year. While most candidates will eventually turn into the Seattle Mariners of politics (hey, this season might be different!), for now everybody is a winner.
Yes, Monday marks the beginning of filing week, with candidates for elected office throwing their hats into the ring for the August primary election.
That means The Columbian’s Editorial Board will soon start contacting candidates and setting up interviews. We then will make recommendations that you, the voters, are free to ignore. And that’s OK. The important thing is that we work to make our readers a little better informed; if they disagree with our suggestions, well, that’s why we hold elections.
So, as both seasoned candidates and political neophytes prepare to sit down with us, we offer a few suggestions for those facing probing questions and withering glares from the Editorial Board:
• Don’t be condescending. Don’t be annoying. Don’t be condescending and annoying. For example, we once recommended a candidate we disagreed with on just about every issue because the opponent was condescending and … well, you get the idea. If you can’t work well with others and if we grow tired of you in a 60-minute interview, you probably will not be effective in a government position where you must engage with all sorts of people.
• That is the primary thing we are looking for — candidates who can be effective and do the job well, regardless of political philosophy. It sometimes is viewed as a badge of honor for candidates to cling to their party’s dogma regardless of facts. But extremism in politics is, indeed, a vice.
• Because of that, we typically wind up recommending about the same number of Democrats as Republicans. Judging by some emails I receive, there are people who won’t believe this; but it’s true. We don’t have a quota for which party we recommend, but it tends to work out fairly even. OK, OK, that makes me curious; I’ll look it up … in 2014, the last midterm election, we recommended seven Democrats and five Republicans in the general election.
• Because of the trope that our Editorial Board is biased one way or another, some candidates decline to meet with us out of fear they won’t get a fair shake. Last year, there were five of those; none of them advanced to the general election. Let’s face it: Sitting down with the largest media outlet in Southwest Washington is a good way to get your message out, both in the newspaper and through the videos we post unedited on YouTube (search for “Columbian Editorial Board”). If a candidate is not willing to face difficult questions, the public notices.
• Don’t be condescending or annoying. Did I mention that?
• The idea of messaging brings us to the best possible piece of advice for candidates: Know the budget of the office you are seeking. If you are running for city council, you probably should know how much money the city brings in and how it spends that money. You can’t claim “taxes are too high” if you don’t know the details. One school board candidate, asked about the district’s budget, said, “No idea.” At least the candidate was honest, if unqualified.
• Running against an incumbent can be like trying to fight your way out of a cobra pit; you are at a disadvantage. Challengers need to demonstrate why they would be an improvement over the current officeholder. That doesn’t mean you have to stand on your head and juggle, but there should be something special about your candidacy and the expertise you bring to the position. We met with one candidate for state office whose tactic was to accuse the incumbent of every sort of malfeasance she could think of, hoping that something would stick. We recommended the incumbent.
• Being the incumbent, however, does not automatically mean we are impressed. One officeholder (I won’t mention names, but it might or might not rhyme with Fiz Hike) kept saying things like, “My opponent, bless her heart …” That was condescending. And annoying.
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