The primaries are behind us, and the news will disappoint anyone who hoped for a vigorous debate of local issues: every local office on the November ballot is uncontested, and every candidate left standing is from the same party (see story on page 1). Barring a late write-in campaign, this year’s candidates for state representative, state senator, governor’s councillor, and district attorney, every one an incumbent, will run unopposed. That’s not exactly a scandal, but an election without a contest can pass without a conversation. This town deserves one anyway. We’d like to help spark it.
The idea isn’t ours. It comes from Jay Rosen, a former New York University journalism professor and author of the PressThink blog. Rosen calls the approach the “Citizens Agenda,” now a rallying cry among journalists: not the odds, but the stakes.
The logic is simple. Instead of editors guessing what matters, the community sets the agenda. We ask voters directly what they want candidates to talk about in seeking their vote, and their answers become the questions we put to them.
How it will work
Propose a question for any of the four candidates by filling out our form, online or on paper. Keep it local; no national talking points, please. The state representative and senator share one set of questions; the Council and the DA’s office differ enough to warrant their own.
Submit by Monday, Sept. 21, to editor@harvardpress.net, or on paper at the Harvard Public Library, the Harvard Senior Center, or our office.
We’ll select three questions per office, send them to candidates, and publish responses Oct. 30, one week before Election Day.
Why this, why now
While none of these officeholders has a say in Harvard’s self-governance—town meeting and the Select Board handle that—their state and county decisions still shape this town. The Legislature sets the state budget and the laws a town operates under, the Council decides who sits on the bench, and the DA runs the criminal justice system touching our cases. An unopposed candidate faces no pressure to explain those decisions. That’s worth fixing, contest or no.
So: What do you want your candidates to talk about? Tell us by Sept. 21.
