Most respondents think local elections are very important; all plan to vote

Also: A few newsroom rules for election information; and you really need to take in the Nicolaus parade

We’ve got all of September to think things over and then, in the front part of October, mail ballots go out ... and then, decisions.

Responses are coming in slowly to an informal online survey we’re conducting. But of those responding so far, just about everyone thinks the local elections are “very important.” Everybody plans to vote. While there’s some ambivalence on state politics, most people think national politics is “very interesting.”

We’re running the survey mainly as a way to garner suggestions from citizens on the questions and issues that should be raised at a series of candidate forums we’re conducting along with the Chamber of Commerce.

Want to join in? It’s easy. Go to our website at appealdemocrat. com and click on the survey story near the top of the home page, then just click into the survey (we haven’t yet heard from anyone in Yuba County supervisor District 1, by the way).

The forums are slated through the last of September and first of October. Dates, times and places will be publicized down the road a bit. The Appeal will also send out candidate questionnaires.

A few other Appeal election issues:

It’s sort of late for candidates to announce their candidacies ... the deadline is long past. We will, however, for another week accept announcements – they should be kept as succinct as possible and we’ll reserve the right to edit them down to size. We’re interested in information about who a candidate is, the candidate’s relevant experience and qualifications, and top few priorities for the job. We’ve printed and will continue to print mug shots of candidates if they are provided.

In the past, the Appeal printed any endorsements that came in – sometimes as brief news stories, sometimes as letters to the editor. Nowadays, we only run them as paid advertising. We think it’s great if you want to endorse someone or if you’ve gotten someone’s endorsement ... but we consider it marketing, not news. (There might be exceptions – when, for instance, a retiring incumbent announces an endorsement for a replacement, a line could go in).

Meet-and-greet functions, fundraisers and rallies all fall in the realm of marketing – so, advertising.

We’re allowing letters to the editor again this year that address specific issues. They cannot be merely campaign pieces or endorsements for specific candidates. They need to be about issues that candidates should be considering – and they can succinctly report how a candidate has reacted to an issue. Candidates can write letters under the same rules. Once a month, up to 490 words. We won’t accept guest columns from candidates from now until after elections.

Every once in awhile we get calls from someone who wants to time an announcement or news release so that it coincides with their media buys ... Nah. That’s advertising.

As we’ve said before, it’s going to be an interesting election year with lots of issues generated locally and pushed down on us from national politics. And it looks like there will be a good slate of candidates. Off we go...

* Thumbs Up: Given what most parades have devolved into over the last of couple decades, it’s hard for some people to understand when we tell them they should travel to tiny Nicolaus for the incredible Labor Day Parade.

The parades of old may, in most cases, be the stuff of nostalgia, with their numerous marching bands, toiled-over floats, juggling and baton twirling and all that, replaced with mostly walking groups and trucks with banners attached.

But the Nicolaus parade is a spectacle. It’s a throwback in a great way. And it’s not just the parade ... it’s the effect of thousands of people descending on a town of a couple hundred. It’s just fun to be a part of it.

Take it in, is our advice. At least every few years. How else are you going to celebrate Labor Day?

It’s the 29th edition this Monday. Pancakes at 7 a.m.; parade at 10 a.m. There will be all kinds of people and all sorts of things.

* I met up with my buddy at the bar and boy was he mad at his boss. He was practically in a rage over something that had been said and finally yelled, “I’m never going to work for that jerk again!”

“Wow,” I said. “Just what, exactly did he say to you?”

“You’re fired.” Steve Miller is Editor of the Appealdemocrat