Watch the YDR editorial board conduct candidate endorsement interviews
Live video for mobile from Ustream
The YDR editorial board interviews candidates for the 15th state Senate seat.
The campaign season is heating up – and not just in the presidential race. There are many important state races on the ballot this November. That means the YDR editorial board will be busy in the coming weeks interviewing candidates for the state Legislature and other statewide contests such as auditor general. And, of course, our community will choose a new member of Congress to succeed the retiring Rep. Todd Platts.
Our purpose in interviewing candidates is to determine which ones we will endorse. That practice is controversial among some people – who believe we should not offer our opinions and should simply let voters decide for themselves. Well, voters will decide for themselves, but we think this longstanding tradition of offering well-informed suggestions has value.
In recent years, rather than meeting individually with each candidate, our editorial board has arranged to meet simultaneously with all candidates for a particular office. That gives us a chance to see them in action, side by side, in a sort of informal debate format. We find we learn a lot more about the candidates and their differences that way.
This year, we’re opening up that process to anyone who wants to watch via the web. We’re streaming our sessions live on the Internet.
The video of the sessions will be archived at the YDR Politics blog. Our first session, with 15th state Senate candidates Rob Teplitz (Democrat), John McNally (Republican) and Alvin Taylor (write-in), can be viewed there – as well as on this page.
We hope you’ll take the time to tune in – and offer your thoughts on the sessions via commenting.
Our next session, with 92nd state House candidates Mike Regan (Republican) and Chuck Comrey (Democrat) will stream live at 4:30 p.m. Aug. 30.