Home Opinion Editorials Good list; we just wish it were longer

Good list; we just wish it were longer

Written by Baker City Herald Editorial Board October 13, 2010 02:11 pm

We had hoped to use this space to explain which four of the candidates for Baker City Council we believe deserve your votes in the Nov. 2 election.
What we hadn’t counted on is there being just four candidates.
Which happens to be the precise number of openings on the seven-member Council.
This sort of narrows the choice.
And it renders moot our preferred method in electoral matters — that is, to interview all the candidates and then decide who we think would best serve Baker City.

(“We” in this case meaning the Herald’s editorial board: publisher Kari Borgen, reporter Chris Collins, and editor Jayson Jacoby.)

This paucity of candidates is hardly a democratic disaster, of course.

At least there are enough civic-minded residents to claim all the seats on the Council. That hasn’t always happened in Baker City Council elections.

And fortunately, all four of the candidates on the ballot have relevant experience.

Dennis Dorrah, Beverly Calder and Clair Button are incumbent councilors.

Roger Coles is a member of the city’s budget board.

It’s a solid slate of candidates.

Even so, we’re disappointed that voters don’t have a wider range of choices.

We’re certain that other qualified people disagree with some decisions the current Council has made — and, more important, they can articulate how they would do things differently.

But such ideas are for naught if their proponents aren’t willing to submit their beliefs to the scrutiny of their fellow citizens.