Primary Pain

I have dreaded August since January.

Augusts in even numbered years mean one thing to me … I will be losing my mind (even more than normal).

Augusts contain Back-to-School sections, County Fair coverage, Fall Sports Sections and, in the aforementioned even-numbered years, … Election Sections.

You may have noticed that the actual paper is outweighed by the Primary Election Section by eight pages.

It is a pain … to put it lightly.

Getting Started

I started assigning candidates to my reporters as soon as the candidate filing list was concrete back in June.

We had discussions about what we would ask the candidates by office sought.

In mid-July we sent letters to the candidates with both the questions we arrived at and the opportunity to advertise in the Primary Election Section.

You may have noticed that the questions we asked for the primaries were pretty softball questions, but with the sheer amount of candidates running for office (10 for Wyoming governor alone!) we felt it best to just introduce you to the candidates and some of their general views.

The primaries are kind of just a winnowing and “get-to-know me” process and we fully intend to ask more specific questions for our General Election Section coming October 31.

While we completely filled 24 pages and there was very little wiggle room, I was surprised by some of the candidates who did not respond to our letters, emails and calls.

Some candidates do not like talking to the press. Some simply may have had our emails diverted to their spam folders. Others might have known they were unchallenged in the primaries and did not feel it important enough to reply.

A word of advice to these candidates: Unless you plan on keeping your mouth shut in council meetings (or whatever your position ends up being) the press will eventually end up covering what you say. If our replies were caught in the electronic ether of spam folders … you might want to turn those off as someone in the electorate might have an issue to discuss with you. As far as those who were unchallenged and didn’t feel it important … I get it, but your electorate might have wanted to read your positions anyway. But those candidates will get another chance.

Working like Ducks

So my intrepid reporters began gathering responses and following up where needed even in the midst of a very busy summer.

It is about here that I should let you know how hard both Mike and Josh (my reporters) worked on this chaotic mess of assignments.

They were always willing to help even when I texted them during late nights.

Despite my biennial despotism and severe crankiness, my staff worked like ducks (meaning they remained calm above the water and paddled like hell where you couldn’t see).

Thanks again guys.

Format Questions

Myself, getting this in a readable format was, as is the norm, challenging.

I was at the office late every night (including weekends) the week before this published.

Layout is only part of the story though.

When a particular candidate got a little too wordy for the space I had, I had to edit.

One candidate in particular was Harriet Hageman. Her answers were very detailed and, in my opinion, extremely good answers. They were just too long.

For example Ms. Hageman mentioned twice that she had traveled 34,000 miles across the state during her campaign. While that is quite a feat and worth mentioning to explain why she knew first hand that cell phone service was spotty in Wyoming, I felt once was enough and cut the other mention.

I assure you, the reader, that I tried my absolute hardest to not change the intent of what was being said.

I endeavored to be truly balanced in both my layout and editing.

You may notice some photos are cropped closer or farther than others. Sometimes those choices were mandated by the amount of verbiage the candidate sent. The photos had to balance within the confines of the type.

You may notice that the only two-column photo for a candidate was that of Encampment Mayoral Candidate Greg Salisbury. I could have cropped the photo to his face alone but I had the space on the page and I think most Wyomingonians (more on that word in a future edition) would appreciate the beautiful fish. It was honestly not a ploy to favor a candidate, more of a, “Wow, look at that fish” thing.

I did crop another fish photo to one column (see if you can find it) but that was purely a space constraint.

Hard, But Worth It

This particular rant may seem like just one long-winded complaint.

Maybe.

Now that the Primary Election Section is done though, I am proud.

A few years ago the Saratoga Sun submitted our Election Section into the “Special Section” category for judging at the Wyoming Press Association convention.

We took third.

That may not seem like much, but we were up against a lot of different type of special sections and I can’t say the two ahead of us weren’t really good … because they were.

The part that made me proud was that the judges commented that our Election Section was the best election section they had seen.

Everybody does one and I am sure they saw quite a few of them.

I feel we have outdone ourselves on this one.

The Real Reward

Awards aside, if our efforts have led one person to consider a candidate they might not have before, or decide someone who was a “lock” in their mind might not be “the guy (or gal)” then that is the real point of our efforts.

I sincerely hope you will take the time to learn about the candidates you will be voting on and make an informed decision August 21.