Local elections tend to be more personal. Voters can’t just mark Republican or Democrat all the way down the ballot. Community debates focus more on quality of life issues or local levies instead of ideological differences. Candidates may be friends or neighbors.
Several towns and cities in Whitman County have contested races in November with candidates discussing public safety, transportation, parks, streets and other issues. They will debate who can best represent the interests of their communities.
To try to prioritize our coverage of the upcoming General Election, we have put together a short voter survey on what local issues or policies you want candidates to discuss. Click here to take the anonymous survey or contact us directly here.
We will use the survey responses to set coverage priorities and put together interview questions for candidates in the coming weeks. Regardless of where you might live in the county, please feel free to share your input and priorities for your local races.
The survey reflects a “Citizens Agenda” reporting strategy for targeting campaign coverage on the issues that local voters care about most. This survey by LA Times reporter Matt Pearce also inspired some of the questions.
In search of a sort of baseline on local interests, we have compiled a spread sheet below comparing ideas Pullman residents sent to the city against what the Pullman City Council adopted as its official priorities from 2011 through 2018. The City of Pullman solicits these ideas each year and compiles them for the public.
Sometimes they line up. Other times they don’t.
Together they amount to more than 500 ideas for making the city a better place to live.
The city council has adopted about 10 to 20 ranked goals each year. The Pullman Chamber of Commerce submitted more than 70 suggestions, the Pullman Civic Trust submitted about 50, the College Hill Association provided about 20 and the League of Women Voters offered about 15. Residents submitted most of the rest.
Citizens submitted dozens of suggestions each year, some very specific (like repaving a particular street) and others quite broad (like bring downtown to life).
Some of the suggestions have been summarized or simplified to fit in the spread sheet. You can find the original listings compiled here as well as the adopted city council goals and other materials here. A hardcopy of the goals and supporting letters can also be found at the Neill Public Library near the central information desk.
But for a quick look, the city council listed offering strong support to the Pullman-Moscow Regional Airport as its top goal for four of the past eight years. It also listed encouraging economic development consistently as one of its top-three goals.
Citizens and the council listed paths and trail systems as a high priority with at least 60 mentions in the comments. Bikes or bicycles received 37 mentions and pedestrians garnered another 30 mentions.
Parking issues received 32 mentions while transit or buses received just seven mentions. Traffic improvements or a south bypass drew another 23 mentions.
Revising the city’s Comprehensive Plan came up several times from citizens and civic groups. Riverfront access and water quality issues came up at least 32 times.
The library received 10 comments, police service came up seven times and fire service came up just once. Accessibility or ADA concerns came up about a dozen times.
If you have ideas or feedback on these submission or related issues in other Whitman County cities, please take our survey. Read and compare all of the submissions yourself in the spread sheet below:
And here’s the survey, one last time: