Invisible election

Yesterday's Chapel Hill News is the last edition of that paper before tomorrow's election. Surveying the entire news section of the paper shows that the only mention of this is in the endorsement letters, the political advertisements, and two opinion columns on the presidential race. Apparently the journalists at the News just didn't think there was anything new to say about the local election. However, they did find time to interview folks in the street about the nonexistent hula-hoop "issue."

I don't have a paper version of Sunday's Chapel Hill Herald, and not all of their content seems to make it to their website, but I can see that they at least mustered a preview of the State Senate Primary race. Oh and I almost forgot to mention WUNC. They chose last week for a pledge drive, all but ensuring that there would be less coverage and less listeners during the only full week that the national press and the presidential candidates are focused on North Carolina. I got more primary news from the national NPR News Blog (but now that's been shut down!)

You may think this is 'just a primary' but in Orange County, the Democratic primary IS the election, like it or not. In addition, the County School Board (for some reason I cannot understand) holds their actual election during the primary race, so this is it for them. The high-stakes presidential primary is bringing out record numbers of voters. Will they change the outcome of any of our local races? How? Which candidates have raised more money and from who? Are all those political ads and candidate speeches accurate and fair?

I won't be counting many of our local media outlets for meaningful answers. Bring on the blogs...

[Edited 5/6/08, 8:53 am.]