Local Voter Guides Help Fill Information Gap

Lack of space often results in poor local election coverage from our area newspapers. But in recent years, local blogs and voter guides have helped fill an information gap.

The best blogs for election coverage are provided by the newspapers. As much as we amateurs try to provide election coverage, newspaper blogs have infinitely more credibility because the writers at least try to be objective. Jarrett Renshaw, for example, has an excellent account of the snub that Allentown's Human Relations Comm'n delivered to mayoral candidate Tony Phillips. Bill White takes city council candidate Julio Guridy to task for being so camera shy during a recent NAACP debate. "[W]hen a candidate doesn’t want people to see him on video, even when he’s just talking about his candidacy, it speaks volumes. In fairness to Guridy, if I had his record as a toothless watchdog of the executive branch, I might be camera-shy, too."

For its part, The Express Times has an amazingly detailed Voter Guide. In addition to biographical information, county council candidates supply answers to eight tough questions. For example, will they support a bi-county health department? Cusick - yes, if it's affordable; Dertinger - yes, unequivocally; Dietrich - no; Ferraro - Cost will be driving factor; Garvin - no, too costly; Gilbert - wants to review cost analysis data; Hunter- worried about funding; Pasquali - yes; Thierry - yes, if it can be done without a tax hike; Wallace - yes.

Other Voter Guides are maintained by Forks Action Committee and League of Women Voters.