By: centraljersey.com
The 2011 school board election campaign season officially began March 8 with the filing of nominating petitions.
It will end on election day, April 27.
This year it involves three open Hopewell Township seats (three-year terms) on the Hopewell Valley Regional Board of Education. Five township residents are hoping to win those three seats. Of the five people involved, two are incumbents.
Candidates are: incumbent Laura Desai, of Federal City Road; incumbent Roy Dollard, of Elm Ridge Road; Adam J. Sawicki Jr., of Caroline Drive; Burton J. Sutker, of Lexington Drive; and Jill Vaughn, of Pennington-Lawrenceville Road.
Hopewell Borough’s one seat and Pennington’s one seat are not involved in this year’s election.
We urge township voters and others who want to learn more about the candidates to attend the Hopewell Valley League of Women Voters’ annual Candidates Night – a 90-minute forum that will begin at 7:30 p.m. March 29 in the TV studio at Hopewell Valley Central High School, Pennington-Titusville Road.
For those unable to attend, the League session will be televised live on Comcast channel 19, and Verizon channel 32. Beginning March 30, the forum will be rebroadcast Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays at 7 p.m. and Wednesdays, Saturdays and Sundays at 11 a.m.
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. Publication of biographical information is planned for our April 14 edition.
CAMPAIGN CORNER submissions (including letters) should be no more than 300 words and must arrive by e-mail, 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 the writer must be identified. A phone number for confirmation must be included. Phone numbers will not be published.
Writers should call Ruth Luse, managing editor, at 874-2177, 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 21. 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 must identify the previously raised issue and the individual who raised it when submitting letters that week. No letters of endorsement will be published April 21.
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.

