Have you ever gone to a political candidate’s website? Usually, they’re terrible. Oh, they’re good if your goal is to give money to their campaign — it’s easy to find your way to the contribution page. But if you’re looking for information — detailed information — on what they plan to do if elected, forget it. If they have anything, it’s usually little more than platitudes: improve schools, stop corruption, create jobs. All the candidates want to do those things.

In contrast, go to the Journal Star’s election guide, and there you’ll find a wealth of information on the candidates. For governor, there are video clips of the Journal Star’s interview with each candidate. There are links to many other election resources, too. But my favorite part is the questionnaire. The Journal Star mailed questionnaires to each candidate in contested races and published their answers. I find these to be the most valuable.

First of all, the questions are very good — no softball questions here. And secondly, you get a feel for what’s really important to each candidate. Some have long, detailed answers on one or two questions, then gloss over the other ones; that says something about their priorities. Others are flippant, almost like they don’t take the questionnaire seriously; and that says something about the value they put on communicating with the public.

For example, Republican gubernatorial candidate Andy Martin answers a question about school funding by simply saying, ” This is a complex issue and there are no easy answers. I would press the legislature to consider alternatives.” Wow, thanks for that insight, Andy. I had no idea it was so complex. Glad to see your “plan” is to push this one off on the legislature.

I was most disappointed to see that 2nd-district school board candidate (and incumbent) Garrie Allen didn’t even bother to fill out his questionnaire. I wasn’t especially impressed with his opponent and was leaning toward voting for him until I saw that. Why should I vote for him when he doesn’t have time or think it’s important to answer a few questions for the public?

But I digress. My point here is that the Journal Star consistently does an excellent job at election coverage. I’ve been voting since 1988 and have found the Journal Star’s election guide to always be one of the best sources, if not the best source, of detailed information on the candidates’ positions.  It’s an invaluable service, and I think they should be highly commended for it.

And if you haven’t gotten out to vote yet, the polls are still open as of this writing. Check out the Journal Star’s election guide and then do your civic duty.