By Ruth Luse, Managing Editor
The 2009 school board election campaign season officially began last week with the filing of nominating petitions.
It will end on election day, April 21.
This year it involves two open Hopewell Township seats (three-year terms) and one Pennington Borough seat (three-year term) on the Hopewell Valley Regional Board of Education. Four township residents are hoping to capture those two seats. One Pennington resident, the incumbent, will be running unopposed. A second Pennington candidate has withdrawn from the race. Of the five people involved, only two are incumbents.
Hopewell Borough’s only board seat is not involved in this year’s election.
So, in the spirit of fairness to all candidates and with an eye toward providing the best service to readers, this newspaper has established a set of ground rules for coverage of local election campaigns.
Under the guidelines, this newspaper commits to certain elements of news coverage, including providing background information on all known major candidates in an upcoming edition. Biographical and related information on all local candidates will appear in our April 9 edition.
CAMPAIGN CORNER submissions (including letters) should be no more than 300 words and must arrive — by e-mail or fax — no later than noon on Mondays.
Those whose letters or statements exceed the word limit will be asked to resubmit them. All items will be subject to editing and must be signed by the writer. A phone number for confirmation must be included. Phone numbers will not be published.
Writers should call Ruth Luse, managing editor, at 924-3244 ext. 187, as early as possible Monday afternoons to confirm authorship of letters. Only confirmed letters will appear in the newspaper.
News releases and candidates’ position statements will be used at the editor’s discretion in CAMPAIGN CORNER or as resource material for stories written by the staff. Letters from candidates will be considered campaign statements and will appear in CAMPAIGN CORNER — unless their only purpose is to comment on news coverage of the campaign.
Letters should focus only on school-board-related issues. They should not make personal attacks.
Every effort will be made to avoid the initial raising of controversial or sensational issues in the final edition before the election — April 16. That is known as the “rebuttal” week edition, when only comments by readers and candidates on election issues previously raised in this newspaper will be permitted. Letter writers, who are doing more than just endorsing their favorite candidates that week, must identify the previously raised issue and the individual who raised it when submitting letters that week.
We urge candidates and those who plan to submit items to CAMPAIGN CORNER to save this editorial, which also will be posted on our Web site for future reference.
The aim of the HVN’s election coverage is to focus on what the potential voter needs to know, not on what the candidates or their supporters want to say.
These guidelines reflect the reader service objectives of all Packet newspapers in local elections, school and municipal. Comments on them are welcome and will be considered for the future as this newspaper continues to re-evaluate its policies and practices in an effort to produce the most useful news product possible for its readers.
Please address comments to: Editorial Board, The Princeton Packet Inc., P.O. Box 350, Princeton 08542.

