Newstradamus

Olle Johansson/Cagle Cartoons

Whew! The evening before a big election is a time to take a deep breath — not only for candidates who have been frantically campaigning, but those of us in the media helping voters make an informed decision.

I was particularly focused on efforts on the opinion page — the question-and-answer sessions with all the supervisor candidates on the ballot (as well as Johanna Rodoni, who was not), the candidates’ My Word guest columns, and election letters from readers.

All of those, along with editorials, news stories and useful links can be found online at our special “Decision 2008” election page at www.Times-Standard.com/election/. (We printed and posted online more than 100 letters from readers on candidate and election issues.)

A caller today said he appreciated all the information — that it definitely helped him make his decisions. If you’re waking up this morning still unsure about how to vote, you’ll find what you need on our Web election page.

The Times-Standard Editorial Board was impressed with the quality of the candidates, and the tone of the campaign was on a generally high level — focusing on issues rather than personalities or “dirty tricks.”

An anonymous caller tried to bait the Times-Standard into digging into the personal life of one of the candidates. I said it wasn’t any of our business, being unrelated to the job of supervisor, and that I didn’t think it was the caller’s business either.

I went around and around with her for 15 minutes, asking her why she had to know. She would only say that she had a right to know about the person who would be representing her. Only at the end of the conversation did I get her to admit that she wasn’t a resident of the district in question.

Other issues that seemed to be more petty than substantive — whether somebody could be a full-time supervisor if they spent a few hours a week on another task, or whether it was right to accept a donation from an Indian tribe.

But in general, considering the sometimes polarized politics of Humboldt County, decorum reigned.

It was a different story in Nevada County, where I did a stint as an editor a few years back. Once, a last-minute whispering campaign said a candidate had rats in his restaurant. (An inspector had found mouse droppings some years before.) Not only did the candidate lose, but his restaurant soon went out of business.

In a particularly nasty supervisor race, one candidate had nails strewn on his driveway, while another was the subject of postcards titled “Supervisor for Sale?,” accusing her of dispensing governmental favors for campaign donations. Included was an invoice with county letterhead, later proven to be faked.

Once, at a meeting of the county Republican Central Committee, anger bubbled up over an old slight about the lack of an endorsement, leading to a fistfight in the street in front of the meeting hall.

Humboldt County seems polite by comparison — knock on wood!