As a voting member of CBJ, I try to pay close attention to the written interviews the candidates provide to the paper to help me make an informed choice at the polls. At this time, I have a few concerns and complaints regarding what I have seen in print.
1. I expected to see a reprint of the responses by incumbent Maria Gladziszewski and the write-in candidate Andy Hughes. Maria answered all six of the questions presented to the Assembly candidates. Only the first five of Andy’s responses were printed. Did he not answer question No. 6? Was his response inadvertently omitted? If he did not answer question No. 6, it would have been helpful if that had been stated at the end of the article instead of leaving readers hanging and wondering where his answer was. I hope I am not the only person who noticed Andy’s response to question #6 was missing.
2. I was disappointed in the manner in which the candidates were presented.
A. School Board race: How many candidates are we electing? The pictures were presented in this order: Jeff Short, Kevin Allen, Brian Holst. Their answers were presented in this order: Holst, Short, Allen. Why were they not pictured in alphabetical order and their responses not in alphabetical order as they were for the District 1 candidates (Collins, Jones, Kiehl) and District 2 candidates (Edwardson, White).
B. Assembly Areawide: I assumed Gladziszewski was the only candidate until I turned to the last page and found Hughes’ picture and responses. Why were they not grouped together as Areawide candidates?
In addition, this past week I received two copies of the Voter Information pamphlet that was put out by CBJ. I am assuming my copy of the sample ballot looks like everyone else’s. I would like to ask CBJ why the names of Brian Holst and Loretto Jones are printed darker than all the other candidates whose names are a lighter gray? It appears that someone is attempting to lead the voters to vote for certain candidates.
Dixie Alms,
Auke Bay