By Seth Boyes,
Seth Boyes, News Editor
I’ll try to keep things short, since plenty of other folks have some thoughts to express this week — I guess the opinion page is generating community discussion as intended.
Some readers noticed last week that we at the Decorah Leader did not mention candidate Sarah Corkery, candidate for Iowa’s District 2 seat in the U.S. House, in our coverage of the Oct. 6 Politics in the Park event here in Decorah. And some have asked why that was (see elsewhere on the opinion page).
It’s an honest question from readers, and it deserves an honest answer. Fortunately, it’s also a simple answer. I’ve lost count of how many elections I’ve covered during my years behind a news desk, but between Iowa’s congressional seats, state legislature, county boards, city councils and school boards, it’s easily more than I can count on two hands (not to brag, but the last election cycle at my old publication saw 10 contested races just at the local level, so I might have to involve my toes to get you an accurate tally).
And in covering those races, the words of my former editor have never left me — “Only one ride per ticket.” That was his way of saying, we’ll cover only one public campaign event for each candidate who holds one in our circulation area — and, if a candidate doesn’t hold a campaign event in our area, that’s their choice. The goal being that our coverage won’t become bound by how many coffee shops and diners a given candidate decides to put on their schedule for a given week.
So, when Corkery appeared here again on Oct. 6 — and let’s remember, even the event organizers said they didn’t expect her there that afternoon — I fell back on the policy that’s seen me through close to a decade’s worth of elections. Corkery had already held a public event on Aug. 31 at Decorah’s Club 45, and coverage of that event appeared on the front page of the Sept. 5 Leader. So, we chose not to give her a second go-round (and if you need someone specific to blame, you can put it on me, since I was the one covering Politics in the Park).
But, like I said, I do my best to enforce this policy equally. So, looking back to when former presidential candidate Tom Steyer’s staff asked me to cover an campaign watch party they were holding just down the street from my office in early 2020, I turned them down — I’d already covered his campaign stop less than a month before that. When presidential candidate Vivek Ramaswamy stumped at a local sports bar, I covered it, but I didn’t give him a second swing at it when he came back to the same sports bar a month or so later. When presidential candidate and Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis scheduled an event at a brewery in my old coverage area, I put it on my calendar — until they told me that particular campaign stop wasn’t open to the press. And to give you some perspective on the flip side, when Iowa’s current Attorney General Brenna Bird swung through during her bid as Iowa’s top prosecutor, I didn’t reach out to incumbent Tom Miller for comment — he was welcome to make a local campaign appearance if he wanted, and he did just that about six months later. All that said, you’ll also notice there’s a sizable Q&A feature in this week’s edition, and it has responses from all the candidates in this regions contested races this cycle — including Corkery. It’s something that took some time to arrange with each candidate, but it’s just another way to ensure fair coverage without yielding the pages of the local paper to the calendars of the busiest candidates. Each gets their say one way or another, but none of them get an unlimited say. So, hopefully that sheds some light on our last edition for the readers curious enough to ask. It’s the way I’ve been handling political races since 2016. I’d tell you how many that is exactly, but it’s getting chilly these days, and I’d prefer to keep my socks on.
Agree with Seth? Think he’s got it completely backwards or he’s missed the point entirely? Let your voice be heard. Letters to the editor may be emailed to editor@decorahleader.com or dropped off at 110 Washington St. Suite 4 in Decorah.
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