165 days left
Editorial

There are 165 days left until Election Day 2008 and while the race for the position as our president has been going on seemingly forever, this week seemed to start the clocks for two of our more local elections.

Brian Knuuttila and Jen Flanagan will be facing off to run for state Senate in the Democratic primary on Tuesday, Sept. 16, as they each compete to fill Sen. Robert Antonioni's seat. The seat represents 11 communities including Westminster, Gardner, Leominster and Fitchburg.

Flanagan, the current state representative for Leominster, kicked off her campaign on Monday night, while Knuuttila kicked off his campaign earlier this spring.

The other contested race this summer is for a face-off in the fall's general election between state Rep. Robert Rice and unenrolled challenger Carolyn Kamuda. She is challenging democrat Rice for the seat that represents five communities, including Ashburnham and Gardner.

Neither Rice nor Kamuda has formally kicked off their campaign but both are starting to make the rounds and the calls.

But now is the time to for us to determine what we, as voters, want these races to be about. This is the time when our state officials must answer to us.

They must get out to the communities we live in (for even though they are small, they are important) and answer our questions. Do you want someone that is focused on the local aid and the school funding formulas, or are you looking for someone that is going to lobby for special interest causes like the veterans, the libraries or other local services.

We need to make this campaign season more than simply a meet-and-greet, and more than just fundraisers. Let us figure out our priorities and start to see who will advocate for them.

There are 117 days until the primary election for state Senate and 165 until the general election, so let us gear up this summer and see where we want our state leaders to take us.