ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1996, Roanoke Times
DATE: Sunday, July 7, 1996 TAG: 9607080140
SECTION: HORIZON PAGE: 1 EDITION: METRO
VIRGINIANS this fall will go about the business of hiring three public servants - a president, a U.S. senator and a congressman in the House of Representatives.
But the campaigns that are supposed to inform Virginians as they go about making that hiring decision too often don't. Instead, campaigns wind up looking and sounding like, well, a theatrical event or an athletic contest.
We can't change the way campaigns are run; but we can change the way we cover them.
Between now and November, we're going to be looking at the campaigns not as a horse-race but as one long job interview. Our goal is to provide you with the information you need to make that hiring decision - even if the campaigns themselves get in the way.
Here's how - and here's how you can help us do a better job on your behalf:
What we're trying to do: Make sure the candidates address the issues you're most concerned with.
Too often, campaigns, and campaign coverage, gets bogged down on peripheral issues as candidates argue back and forth over who said what when. This year, we're going to give short shrift to that kind of routine charge and counter-charge.
Instead, we're going to start our campaign coverage by talking to you - the voters - to find out what issues you want the candidates to address, and showing how those issues affect you and your family.
We've commissioned a statewide poll in conjunction with our sister paper in Norfolk, The Virginian-Pilot, to help determine just what those issues are. Then we'll follow up with roundtable discussions with randomly-selected voters in Western Virginia to find out more.
But we've also set up a special election hotline that all readers are invited to call to let us know what you think we ought to be asking the candidates on your behalf.
Then we'll try our darndest to make sure the candidates actually address those concerns - in detail.
To help make things clearer, we'll be running lots of charts so you can compare the candidates' positions side-by-side - the sort of thing you can clip out and stick on your refrigerator door to remind you, come November.
And for citizens connected to the Internet, we'll be regularly updating our on-line Voters' Guide - where readers can catch up on stories they missed, check out what candidates are saying on their home pages, send them e-mail, or study their campaign finance reports.
How you can help: Let us know what issues you're interested in.
Call our election hotline (in Roanoke, 981-0100; in New River, 382-0200, and press category 7821) to let us know what questions you'd like to see us asking the candidates.
Or fill out the coupon below.
Or e-mail us at dyanceyinfi.net or fax us at 981-3346.
And let us know how we're doing. If we're not providing the information you think you need to make a decision on Nov. 5, let us know that, too.
Want to talk more about our campaign coverage? Then call editor Wendy Zomparelli at 981-3227, associate editor Rich Martin at 981-3210 or campaign coordinator Dwayne Yancey at 981-3113.
LENGTH: Medium: 64 lines ILLUSTRATION: GRAPHIC: color.by CNB