Listen to candidates over mud-slinging mailers

My mailbox outside Ralston has filled up recently with big, glossy mailers from various candidates running for House District 50, Senate District 18 and larger races. I don’t mind it too much, except that the material used prevents them from being good kindling once the weather cools and it’s time to start up the wood stove again.

Having covered local politics for years and gone to many forums and talked to most of the candidates personally in my capacity as a newspaper journalist, I already have a good idea of what the candidates are thinking and planning if elected. But I can understand the help these mailers can have for voters who aren’t so involved (which, to be fair, would probably be me if I weren’t getting paid to be so involved).

Of course, I say that because, unless my wife tossed them before I could see them, I’ve only received “pro” mailers, as in the big postcards which state why you should vote for a particular candidate. I’ve seen, however, mailers sent out by nonlocal groups to other residents in the region that are purely attacks against candidates.

A number of them have been beyond the pale, attacking a candidate using grossly misleading arguments based off legislative votes that may have had little to no impact on the actual topic of attack.

As a number of our letter writers have said previously, please ignore these mailers that come from outside groups and only seek to disparage candidates. If you have a question about a candidate, ask them or attend an event where they speak. I was unable to attend the recent Republican Party debate in Cody, but from what I’ve heard there were many good exchanges that actually brought up some big differences in the views of some of the candidates. The debate was held by a local group, moderated by a local resident and put on, like the forums before it, to give local voters a better idea about who’s on the ballot a week from today (Tuesday).

For incumbents, look at their votes on wyoleg.gov and decide for yourself whether their vote was one you agreed with or not, instead of letting some group from out of state dictate your choice for you.

Early voting is already underway and you only have a week before voting day occurs. So please, do at least a little research, watch a debate or forum, read our voting guide online or call up the candidates themselves.

And then go out and do your civic duty and vote.