In a few weeks, Salem will cast ballots to decide on a new crop of city leaders.
The May 21 election will determine who holds a majority of seats on the Salem City Council, setting the direction of the city for the next four years.
Your vote is your say on the people who will help craft Salem’s budget. That means they decide whether to cut library services or police officers, impose new taxes or continue efforts to get the state of Oregon to chip in for city services.
Voter turnout is often low in primary elections and tends to be dominated by people registered as Democrats or Republicans. But most local races on the ballot are nonpartisan, meaning voters unaffiliated with a political party can still have a say.
Ballots will be mailed to voters May 1. Our stories on the candidates will run over the next week and a half to provide you the information you need to vote when your ballot arrives.
Here’s what to expect from our coverage.
At Salem Reporter, we won’t tell you how to vote. Our newsroom doesn’t make endorsements. While our co-founder, Larry Tokarski, has donated money in local races, he has no role in our newsroom operations (see another editor’s column on that topic HERE). Our team of journalists works for you. We make no political donations, and you won’t find campaign signs in our yards.
We will admit to one bias: civic engagement. We think Salem is at its best when people are active and engaged in their community, including through voting in local races. Our goal is to give you the best information we can to do that.
Our coverage focuses on contested local races: Salem mayor, city council, and Marion and Polk county elected officials, including judges. We’ll turn our attention to local legislative races in November.
We seek interviews with each candidate in every race we cover so we can question them about their qualifications, goals, previous achievements and public statements. We look at campaign finance records for major donors and expenses. Our reporters also look into candidates’ backgrounds, checking criminal and civil court records, voting history and more.
If a candidate works a job licensed with the state, like a doctor or teacher, we’ll check the records of the licensing body for any disciplinary issues.
Most often, those checks reveal a few parking tickets, but if we find something notable, we’ll include it in our coverage so you can decide if and how to weigh it in your decision.
We also put our knowledge of local issues to work, asking prospective leaders about how they’ll tackle key issues. We push candidates for clarity, working to pin them down on specifics – not general platitudes. If a candidate can’t articulate a clear plan for something they’ve identified as a priority, our coverage will reflect that. If candidates exaggerate claims about past accomplishments in their campaign materials, we’ll let you know.
We view such coverage as essential to holding elected officials accountable to you, the people they represent. If you have a question about a campaign statement or mailer or suspect something you’ve seen isn’t accurate, we want to hear about it. Please send any questions or suggestions to me at [email protected].
Contact reporter Rachel Alexander: [email protected] or 503-575-1241.
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Rachel Alexander is Salem Reporter’s managing editor. She joined Salem Reporter when it was founded in 2018 and covers city news, education, nonprofits and a little bit of everything else. She’s been a journalist in Oregon and Washington for a decade. Outside of work, she’s a skater and board member with Salem’s Cherry City Roller Derby and can often be found with her nose buried in a book.
