The Sun Newspapers last week ran the following story about the process it will follow to publicize in a fair and balanced manner the upcoming elections. The coverage is slated to begin in the Sept. 9 edition of the Sun. The first question is listed in the following editorial.
It is expected that any serious candidate for the Seal Beach City Council would read the local newspaper. The newspaper intends to do all correspondence with the campaigns of each perspective candidate through the newspaper because there is no other way that could be any more fair. In other words, candidates who want to have their statements and answers to questions published along with the other candidates, will learn the deadlines through the newspaper. In that way, all candidates will have been treated the same.
For that purpose we are publishing the guidelines once more:
All certified candidates for the Seal Beach City Council election to be held in November that want to participate in the Sun Newspaper’s City Council Candidate Questionnaire series need to send their photo as a color jpg file by e-mail to dennis@sunnews.org. (Some candidates have not done this – please comply as soon as possible or you will not have your photograph published).
The Sun’s editor will respond with directions to follow on how the Sun will be covering the election.
The Sun intends to proceed in a manner that is intended to give each candidate an equal amount of space in the paper to state their case for why they are the best candidates in their district race. The Sun will run the answers as a weekly feature on questions to the candidates starting in the Sept. 9 edition of the Sun.
The final question will appear in the Sun edition two weeks prior to the election. The first question is: Why are you the best candidate for your district? The word count is 300 words per candidate. Answers are due by Sunday, Sept. 5 at 10 p.m.
From now on the candidates will learn each week’s question as it appears in the Sun Newspaper on each Thursday’s publication. Answers will be due to the editor by e-mail at 10 p.m. on the following Sunday.
No late e-mailed answers will be recognized. Word limits for answers will be held to strict guidelines and can change each week – watch the Sun for any changes. For any questions, send e-mail to dennis@sunnewss.org.
The Sun is also soliciting questions from the general public to be asked of the candidates. All candidates will be asked the same question each week. Send your question suggestions by e-mail to dennis@sunnews.org.
– Dennis Kaiser, editor of the Sun Newspapers
