Beacon Journal kicks off its political endorsements for this campaign season

This week, the Akron Beacon Journal is kicking off our endorsements and analyses of local candidates who we believe are the right choice in this upcoming election.

These endorsements are a Beacon Journal tradition, and as one of the oldest institutions in the community, we plan to uphold that tradition to help guide our readers as they decide who will earn their vote.

So, how do we decide who to endorse? The Beacon Journal editorial board, made up of three editors and five citizen members, has spent time sitting down with candidates to hear about their vision and priorities.

While some candidates were unresponsive — which we will note in those respective editorials — we are appreciative of those who gave us their time. It allowed us to ask tough questions and get their genuine, real-time feedback, often face to face.

Readers who participated in the We Can Disagree project through the Polis app helped influence those questions. After area residents shared feedback on the issues they believe are most important and what they want to see in their leaders, we made sure to incorporate those ideas into our questions.

We Can Disagree: What would help the people of Greater Akron have a better life? Here's what we found

It's important to note that our endorsements are based solely on the opinions of our editorial board members. The reporters in our newsroom, who will be rolling out election preview stories in the upcoming weeks, strive for neutrality in their reporting and have absolutely no influence on opinion content.

One thing the Beacon Journal editorial board does not take into account when making our endorsements are political affiliations. In fact, our board members, who sit on both sides of the political aisle, agree that partisanship is misplaced in races such as sheriff and prosecutor.

Incumbency, too, while taken into consideration, is not a driving force behind our endorsements, though the candidates’ track records certainly play an important role.

We sought candidates who had a clear vision for the role they were pursuing, a passion for the position and an obvious desire to make their communities a better place.

Through our interviews, we've been pleased to see people who seem to be fitting that bill.

In the coming weeks, keep an eye out for our thoughts on candidates for this upcoming election. We hope you'll feel free to share your thoughts, too.

Help us cover what you think is important to improving life in the community. Go to the brainstorming app Polis at https://pol.is/6mhvipxs2z, offer your thoughts and vote on each other’s ideas. Let’s see what surfaces as common ground.

This article originally appeared on Akron Beacon Journal: Beacon Journal kicks off its political endorsements for this campaign season