Ed. — From the Sunday, Sept. 4, print edition.
BACK BAY — I enlisted in the Navy before I turned 18. I’m a November baby, and I came of age a few short days after Election Day 1991. There wasn’t anything to vote for that year back home in Rhode Island.
It was different the next year, the first time I remember voting. I cast a ballot that I filled out aboard an aircraft carrier and mailed to the Ocean State. I’d paid attention to the presidential election, but I didn’t know much about candidates for Congress, governor or the other state offices.
I may not have picked many winners that year – define that as you will – but I was heard. And this is government’s only real promise to the people who allow government to exist – let us count a little.
As the years went by, especially while working as a reporter, I studied elections at the national, state and local level. I take this stuff seriously. I avoid primaries because of my job, but I vote. I do homework. Even given the lesser of two evils, I choose. I love that I can vote. I love that people who may disagree with me vote, too.
I’ve covered campaigns in New York and Virginia. I’ve gotten to know politicians of all kinds. Some are sincere. Others? Less so.
As a journalist and a person, I cannot deny that I’ve developed a clear bias.
It’s not a partisan one some folks might assume. I can tell you I do not much care about which candidate people vote for or what political flavor they favor. I do care that people vote, however they vote. I hope you will see the difference.
My bias is simple and, I hope, relatively inoffensive.
To me, it’s the local stuff that matters most of all to everyday life.
We spend a lot of time talking about the Bidens and Trumps of the world. Those people matter. Local just matters more.
This year, Virginia Beach faces decisions of great importance in an election unlike any in the history of our modern city. We face a series of City Council and School Board elections under a new court-imposed 10-district system. For the first time here, which is remarkable, only the people who live within districts will select the people who represent those districts.
Given the result of a recent appeal by the city of the court decision, there is a strong possibility this system may no longer be in place by our 2024 local elections. But this is what we have now. Elections include City Council and School Board races in District 2, essentially the former Princess Anne District and the main coverage area of our newspaper. We also cover Kempsville and the Oceanfront. There are important races, there, too, as there are elsewhere.
In the current print edition of The Independent News, which remains on stands as this is posted online, we have responses to questions from all candidates for local offices. Those responses and our entire 2022 voter guide will go online before early in-person voting begins.
Additionally, we have news coverage online about the campaigns in Virginia Beach and the changes to our local voting system. You can check that out as you will. Both are online now.
One thing that will not happen in this newspaper? I will not tell you how to vote. That is not my place as a journalist. I hope only that you will vote. Maybe our work will help you make better-informed decisions this year. If so, that is a pretty good outcome. If not? That’s okay, too.
I hope only that you will decide to be heard this year. Our city matters, and it is our city. It is especially ours when we stand up to be counted as citizens.
The voter guide edition is a challenge to pull off every year, and I have a lot of help. First, I am grateful to the candidates who took the opportunity to speak directly to voters by responding to our questions. Especially those who responded early. You are my favorites.
I also am thankful to my friends Charles Apple, a graphic designer who created our district maps, and Rick Friday, a farmer and cartoonist who draws our cover illustration each year. My better half, Cortney Morse Doucette, helps read behind me.
Thank you, all.
Go vote.
Excellent story. Local elections are fair more impactful to our daily lives than most national elections. With that said, the influx of out of state money to influence our US House of Representatives election is disturbing. One candidate in particular has benefitted from out of state money disproportionately from the other, and that has been the case for multiple elections now. Forces from outside our community are brazenly attempting to influence the election of OUR Representative. That topic needs to be covered as it is contrary to the ideals of our very governmental framework. Whoever serves this district of Virginia must only be elected by Virginians, not some West Coast demagogues who desire to wreck our way of life in a manner that has already been so effectively accomplished in their own state.
(NOTE: This issue could be simple. The candidates could control outside influences themselves by refusing PAC money, but we’ve already seen our current Representative make that pledge and then abandon it once in office as she and other politicians seem to do anything necessary to hold on to power. How anyone could vote for someone like that whose ambitions are so naked is a sign of the continuing degradation of societal values.)