This election cycle sees local contests

With the primaries for state and federal offices and the filing period for local offices over, the 2022 election season can now begin in earnest.

What is notable about this year’s ballot is that there are several contests for offices on the local level, especially school boards.

In the Kasson-Mantorville and Byron School Districts especially, people have decided to throw their hat into the political arena.

In K-M, seven candidates have filed to fill three board seats expiring and an additional four candidates have filed for one open seat to fill the remaining term of a board member who resigned. In Byron, the combination of expiring board seats and those open because of resignations has led to six of the seven board positions on the November ballot. In the case of Byron, four individuals have filed for the three expiring positions and seven candidates have filed for the three positions to fill the remaining terms of members who resigned.

In Hayfield four candidates have filed for three positions and in Triton it is four candidates for four positions.

The mayor and city council positions are not quite as competitive as school board positions but there are still several races where there will be multiple candidates running for the positions.

Competition is something to be positive about when it comes to these local positions. Too often the incumbents keep running and getting elected because there is no opposition. If no one runs because the voters are happy with their officials that is one thing. But if there is no opposition because no one cares, or they don’t feel it is important to serve in public office, then there is a problem.

To be honest about it, there are many good and valid reasons not to run for office. Being an elective official takes time, a lot of time. Yes, there are the regular meetings, but there also are the meetings with other government agencies and with civic groups. There is also the time spent listening to individual constituents. Unless one has this amount of time, holding a public office can be impossible.

There is also a concern among many people about opening themselves up to the constant criticism that a public official gets. While this has always been true to an extent, the current political climate has likely made more people unwilling to subject themselves, and sometimes their families, to abuse. It is a sad state of affairs when citizens are afraid to run for public office.

So, it is good to see that here in our communities people have been willing to step up and let their views be known.

Let’s hope for a lively and informative campaign season. Here at the DCI we welcome your letters to the editor. Just remember, when writing about the election keep your letters civil in tone. Be clear about your opinion and what you like about your chosen candidate’s views but stay away from personal attacks. They do nothing other than to make an already toxic political climate worse.