You can endorse your candidate, just not on the opinion page

I've said in the past that one of the last actual editorials the Dickinson County News published was a piece from September of 2003, which supported funding the construction of the current county courthouse. But, as so often happens with newspapers, you learn something new every day. I came across another while browsing some archives recently — this one from mid-October of 2003. And it seemed appropriate during this festive election season to share some of those tidbits with all of you ahead of next week's paper, which will feature zero letters concerning candidates running in any political race.

Some readers may remember, but for those who don't, there was a bit of a ruckus arising from the Spirit Lake City Council race in 2003. A total of 11 candidates were running for just three seats that cycle, partly because of what some saw as conflict of interest issues. Then as much as now, the paper was getting a number of letters endorsing specific candidates.

"We can't pick and choose which letters to run," the staff said at that time. "So the only fair policy for endorsement letters is to not run any at all."

Complicating matters was the fact that one of the many candidates had "slipped in an opinion piece a couple weeks ago that was critical of the current council." The staff noted that, while the candidate hadn't specifically asked for the public's vote, the content essentially amounted to a campaign ad and probably shouldn't have been allowed on the opinion page at all (and to be upfront dear readers, there was a point ahead of this year's primaries when a few letters which otherwise shouldn't have made it to the page did, due to policy confusion following a change in the paper's ownership).

And just like the 2003 staff, we too have seen our fair share of letters which attempt to get a free campaign ad from the paper by dressing it up as a letter.

"Candidate X is a hard worker."

"Candidate Y is involved in their community."

"Candidate Z stands up for their values."

All admirable qualities, of course — so buy an ad. Those who want to endorse their candidate of choice continue to have that option available to them within the pages of this publication. Aside from that, we reserve the right to edit and even sometimes outright decline to print letters which venture too far into what should be a paid advertisement.

"Excluding letters is never an easy decision to make," the 2003 DCN staff wrote (and I couldn't agree more). "Some of you will disagree with our call here, and we invite you to express your opinion on that — or a wide range of other issues for that matter."

And that same policy still stands. The opinion page is meant as a place to encourage discussion and consider new ideas, not list one's personal qualities as if building a resume. So write about the issues, write about what concerns you, write about what gives you hope, write about all the various facets of life here in Dickinson County — write about how much you disagree with every word I've written since I began writing for the DCN.

But if you're looking to endorse your preferred candidate, it'll have to be on a different page.