In the Mount Vernon-Lisbon Sun this week, you will see candidate profiles for the Lisbon city council, Lisbon mayor, Mount Vernon city council, Mount Vernon mayor and the first five profiles of the Mount Vernon School Board candidates.
With 10 candidates for the Mount Vernon School District, we are splitting these over two weeks. All 10 profiles were received by the Thursday, Oct. 12, deadline from all candidates; it is more to reserve space for the other news and happenings in the community we are reporting.
Lisbon has two write-in candidates for their school board, both of whom will also have profiles. Robyn Aaron’s campaign was just announced in the past week and, in a goal of equitable treatment to all candidates, we want her to have the opportunity to answer those same questions as the other candidates in the race and have those all run at the same time. Lisbon’s school board candidate profiles will run in the Oct. 26 issue.
We provide these profiles/questions as a service for the Mount Vernon and Lisbon electorate, even in races that are not contested, so you know who the candidates are and what they think the issues are in the communities and school districts. These are citizens who are running for seats on your local school boards, city councils or as mayors, and they are the candidates under your local control who you will most likely interact with far more often than your state or federal representatives.
Aside from these profiles, we also encourage those in Mount Vernon to pay attention to the Lisbon and Mount Vernon chapter of the Linn County League of Women Voters upcoming candidate forum with members of the Mount Vernon School Board scheduled for Wednesday, Oct. 25, at 7 p.m. at Mount Vernon High School commons. That is another opportunity for these candidates to answer questions from the public on more issues.
We are also going to be setting a deadline for any letters endorsing any candidate in the coming election to the Oct. 26 issue and avoid any content that would unduly influence any candidate from appearing in the Thursday, Nov. 2, issue. Those letters to the editor need to be in by Sunday, Oct. 22 at 5 p.m. to be printed in the Oct. 26 issue.
We encourage you all to get out and vote in this general election, no matter which candidates you are voting for, whether via absentee ballot or when polls are open Tuesday, Nov. 7.
Good luck to all candidates who are opting to run as well.