A Note To The Community And Rockville Candidates

Judging by my Inbox, campaign season for the City of Rockville is getting started!Politics has always been a little tricky for us.On the one hand, we like to think of >Rockville Central as a “safe space” where we are respectuful and civil, talk about the issues that matter to us, and don’t get personal. We especially try to avoid the sort of intense campaigning that can take over some online spaces. People come to us for respite and for information, not to rally the troops.

On the other hand, politics is an integral part of our civic life. Politics is the way we make decisions about what we — as a community — ought to do and what we hold valuable. So it’s irresponsible to avoid politics.

So we’re trying to strike a balance, and in the interest of transparency I wanted to be very open about that. At Rockville Central, we plan to be more energetic about our political coverage this election season. Not a lot, just a little. So here are some of the important points:

• We will not endorse candidates.
• We actively solicit contributions from candidates. If you have something you want to say to the community, please share it with us. (Don’t go saying something new every day, mind you . . . but look to us as a resource!) [UPDATE: I mean articles, not money! We are not seeking donations from candidates, although that might be a novel twist.]
• We’re going to try to be fair and evenhanded in all our coverage. If we make mistakes, we hope our readers — and the candidates — will let us know.
• If you are a candidate, and feel we are not doing enough to report what’s up with your campaign, please engage with us and we can talk. Maybe we’re not getting your emails. Once again: our goal is to be fair.
• We are planning to post candidate finance reports in PDF online. Last city election cycle we did not do that but gave fair warning at the time that we would do so this year. If the City makes them available electronically in some form, then we won’t do it.
• Some candidates are more comfortable with online media than other candidates. While we are going to try to keep it all even, it will be hard for us to find out what is going on in your campaign if you don’t let us know! If you yourself are not “tech-savvy,” maybe there’s someone among your campaign volunteers who will take it upon themselves to keep in touch with us!
• Some longtime Rockville Central contributors and friends may be running for office this term. How neat! But we’re going to bend over backwards to be fair here. If you are one of those people, you may find me to be less “chatty” than before. It’s not personal. I am just doing my best to make sure warm personal feelings do not get in the way of even-handedness.

One other thing. I understand that supporters will want to weigh in on the comments, and there may be spirited back and forth between supporters of differing candidates. Overall, I encourage that, but if it looks like a campaign is actively trying to “work” the comments by flooding them, I will step in. And, just as important, if “sprited comments” become “mean-spirited comments” I will definitely intervene. Please follow the rules that we all know: don’t attack anyone personally and don’t say something you wouldn’t say to someone’s face. [UPDATE: I added this paragraph about an hour after this was originally published.]

Once again, we may get it wrong sometimes. That is bound to happen once in a while. It’s also definitely going to happen that a candidate will not like our covnerage of something. That’s the nature of this enterprise.

Please know we are going to try our best — and please help us out by letting us know how we can try to improve.

Thanks.

Brad Rourke, Publisher, Rockville Central

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