For the past 68 years, the North Reading Transcript has offered candidates running for municipal office the chance to tell our readers about themselves. It will be no different in 2025. So now that the Town Election season is in full swing leading up to Election Day on Tuesday, May 6, we would like to lay out some ground rules about publicizing those campaigns.
Office hopefuls may submit one biographical piece about themselves, along with a “head and shoulders” photograph and their reasons for seeking elective office, which we call a candidate’s statement. It can be of any length the candidate deems necessary. However, if we feel it’s too long, we will edit it for space. All candidates’ statements will be published together in the Thursday, May 1 edition, which is the last edition prior to the election.
The deadline to submit candidates’ statements to us has been moved to Wednesday, April 23 at 3 p.m. This offer is open to all candidates, not just those who are facing opponents. Consider it an opportunity to provide fellow townspeople with a civics lessons on the local political process.
All candidates were given the opportunity to submit up to three letters to our Letters to the Editor section if they wanted to speak out further about their position on various issues facing the town. Next week, Thursday, April 24, is the last day we will publish such letters.
Next week, April 24, is also the last edition in which our readers may submit letters to the editor in favor of or against any candidate.
The candidates themselves will be given the last word on their campaigns with the submission of their Candidates’ Statement for publication on Thursday, May 1.
All letters and candidate statements should be submitted to the North Reading Transcript by email at: NorthReading News@WakefieldItem.com.
Electronic word documents are preferred to prevent the need to retype your work and to minimize the chance of error.
To ensure that we treat everyone fairly, we have deadlines for submissions. All Letters to the Editor in support of candidates or letters written by the candidates themselves must be submitted to us no later than Monday, April 21 at 10 a.m. for publication in the Thursday, April 24 edition of the North Reading Transcript.
And as a side note, the newspaper plays by an entirely different set of rules than much of social media does. The discourse in everything submitted to us should be civil and respectful. Expressing disagreement with the positions taken by others is fine; being disagreeable is not. Vitriol and nasty rhetoric can be spewed someplace else.
Good luck and thank you to all the candidates who are willing to volunteer hundreds of hours of their time to serve our community!