Time to start your study of candidates

If you haven’t already, it’s time to begin studying who you will vote for in the Primary Election Tuesday, May 10. It’s an unusual Primary this year locally, with so many candidates seeking office compared to other years. It takes study to determine who’s best for the office.
    Do you realize three of our Chase County officials—assessor, attorney and treasurer—will, in effect, be chosen at the Primary? That’s because all of the candidates filed in those three partisan races are Republicans, and just one can advance to the General Election in November.
        I’m sure you’ve noticed that this newspaper, for the past several weeks, has been running a question and answer series to those candidates who are in races that will have run-offs at the Primary.
        This week’s features the three NRD candidates running for the at-large seat. Only two will advance to November, meaning one will be eliminated from the non-partisan race next month. Next week, in our May 4 issue, you’ll be able to read Q and A’s with seven candidates for the Wauneta-Palisade Board of Education race. Three seats are open, so six will advance, meaning one will be eliminated at the Primary.
    Prior to the NRD and WP school board, previous week’s newspapers have featured Q and A’s with candidates for county treasurer, county attorney and county assessor. In nearly all of them, there have been some differences between candidates that have arisen. We hope this effort of ours to reach out to our candidates is helping you make some decisions.
    We will follow with similar Q and A’s in the fall before the General Election, where there will be additional races for Imperial mayor and city council, as well as the Chase County Schools Board of Education and our District 44 state senator.
    It’s a lot of work to get these candidate Q and A’s put together, but we feel it’s worth it. After all, voting is one of our most valued rights as Americans.