Making election season less silly

The work begins in earnest now; we are beginning to shine light on the candidates for office as the filing deadline arrived Aug. 9, or Aug. 14 if an incumbent did not file.

We will begin our endorsement interview process next week, and will start rolling out stories and editorials from those soon after. We typically start with education and roll into city council races, then we get into city measures and school measures.

The general aim is to get through the school board and city council races by early October, in time for when ballots start getting mailed out. Then we move into measures and also try to get through those as quickly as possible. After that, we move to state propositions.

Someone asked if we endorse for president, and we typically don’t. We find there is plenty of information out there for a voter to make up their mind about that. Our specialty is in the local elections because, well, we’ve been covering them for 25 years. In that time, we have learned about important issues both emerging and legacy and use that experience to ask candidates about their own ideas and goals.

It is a responsibility we take very seriously. We don’t play favorites and our recommendations are based solely on whether we think a candidate or measure is best for the community overall.

We have five state and federal races, 17 council races and eight school board races. We also will cover nine city measures and five school measures. We don’t cover noncompetitive races, meaning those that have the same number of candidates as open seats. We only cover races in our coverage area from South San Francisco to Redwood City and from Foster City to Half Moon Bay. We don’t cover Daly City, Brisbane, Colma, Pacifica, Menlo Park, East Palo Alto, Hillsborough, Atherton, Woodside or Portola Valley, though, we would very much like to have the resources to do so.

It is also important to note, once again, that guest perspectives cannot be written about a particular candidate or ballot issue and cannot be written by a current candidate for office from the filing deadline to the election (that’s now). Letters to the editor of about 250 words can be written by anyone and on any topic, however, we do prefer them to be focused.

And about that silly season comment at the beginning, I have noticed a tendency for seemingly normal people to get a little, well, silly. It comes down to this, both the left and the right have extremists, I’d guess about 15% on each side, but they don’t typically represent the point of view of the 70% in the middle. That middle is the core of to who we try to report; however, during elections the 15% on each side tends to infect the middle a bit. I suggest, if you are not currently a zealot, try to maintain your even-keeled nature during the election season. Please, it’s best for everyone.

And it’s also good to check your sources of information for infection as well. Sure, there are bots, but there are also very real people who will twist things for their own purposes. We maintain every effort to see through that and to stick with what we consider to be the core principles and issues of the Peninsula as informed by our typical interactions with readers and policymakers over the years. If our work is to your liking, we recommend sticking with us. If it’s not, or you seek more information, feel free to look elsewhere. We believe the more information and opinions the better. But check your sources and make sure they are valid and real.

Social media has been an interesting advancement in our society and, at its core, it provides so many sources of information to which no one had access. But it’s a system that can be exploited and we have seen that over recent years. So be careful.

And be kind! To us, and to one another. Like I said, this is our work and it’s something we take seriously. We may differ on opinions, but we are doing this work because we believe an informed community is a better community, and it’s our community too.

Jon Mays is the editor-in-chief of the Daily Journal. He can be reached at jon@smdailyjournal.com. Follow Jon on X @jonmays.