Editor's Note: Ask questions, get answers, make choices

    Vote!
    Municipal elections will be held March 11 and it is up to you to choose the people who will guide the community where you live.  
    This has not been a quiet campaign season for Boca Raton, Delray Beach, Gulf Stream, Highland Beach and Ocean Ridge.  When political consultants are hired, print and broadcast advertising begin to appear and candidates demand face-to-face meetings with reporters from monthly newspapers, you know there is much at stake.
    Power and money are powerful aphrodisiacs. It’s your responsibility as a voter to not be seduced by either.
    Instead, you must ask hard questions about the issues that matter most to you, then cast your vote for the candidate most likely to represent your interests as a resident.
    Many people have requested The Coastal Star begin doing candidate endorsements. Could that be helpful? Perhaps. But it is more difficult and complicated than our small paper can handle.
    Even if we pulled together a local area editorial board of like-minded citizens, it would require face-to-face interviews with difficult questions based on hard facts for every single candidate in the nine municipalities we cover.
    Would it be worth it to have candidates yell at us when they don’t get the endorsement? Hell, yes! Would it be worth the time we’d invest in the process? We don’t think so. (Yet, anyway. There may come a time.)
    For now, I hope you’ll find that we have given equal opportunity to all candidates to state their backgrounds and positions and have presented this information in a balanced way. That’s our responsibility.
    Your responsibility is to ask questions. That’s your right. Ask the candidates if they voted in the last city election. Ask them how they feel about the issues that brought residents out to standing-room-only council chambers this past year. Ask them about their commitment to the unique concerns of the barrier island. Find out where they stand. Then vote. It’s important.
My editor’s endorsement is for you — the voter.
Vote!

— Mary Kate Leming, Editor