By Shereen Siewert, Wausau Pilot & Review
The spring election is about a week away, and much ado has been made over the race to become the next justice on the Wisconsin Supreme Court.
Candidate profiles matter because they are often the only way that voters know anything about the people seeking to represent them. We reached out to each candidate in the races we’re covering with a clearly stated deadline, ensuring they had plenty of time (including a weekend) to complete the survey. But it’s always disheartening when some candidates choose not to respond at all. If candidates don’t have time to share their voice with prospective voters or don’t think it’s important to do so, it’s hard to imagine they’ll be accessible to the constituents they’re tasked to serve.
Wausau City Council and Marathon County Board races won’t happen for another year and many neighboring communities are holding uncontested races, but voters in Wausau are especially energized to vote in the Board of Education race, with five candidates seeking three available seats. The winners will undoubtedly help shape the district’s restructuring goal, an issue that has galvanized members of the community and prompted more than 2,000 people to sign a petition.
As we do each election cycle, we are focusing significant efforts on those local races and researched the best questions to ask candidates that would reveal the most about their views on the issues facing their constituency and the solutions they propose. We also reached out to you, our readers, who submitted more than two dozen suggestions. Of those, may shared common themes, and we incorporated them all in our surveys.
We’re proud of the fact that we go far beyond the usual “why are you running” types of questions, and tailor each questionnaire for each race. For example, we ask candidates in some school board races to explain how schools are funded, an effort to learn about their grasp of the mechanisms involved. We asked other school board candidates about their views on school choice, book bans, community involvement and how to stem the flow of students to other districts and communities.
In Kronenwetter races, we asked about cooperation, given the upheaval there in recent months, and about where they would or would not make budget cuts, should they be necessary. The answers are enlightening and say a great deal about each candidate who took the time to answer.
In the coming days, we’ll be offering a voter guide, thanks to a partnership with Ballotpedia, to help you find the information you need before you head to the polls next week. In the meantime, we encourage you to bookmark this page and check for the candidate profiles for the races you’re most interested in. Note who responded, and who did not. For those who did, pay attention to how carefully and thoroughly they responded. Make sure their answers align with your views, and make your choices. That’s what having an informed electorate is all about.
And please, no matter who you choose, head to the polls and cast your ballots on April 4. We’ll post up-to-the-minute results on our home page and on our elections page on Election Day. And yes, we’ll report on that Supreme Court race, too.
Shereen Siewert is the editor and publisher of Wausau Pilot & Review. Contact her at [email protected]. Follow on Twitter at https://www.twitter.com/shereensiewert
