Something wicked this way comes

Oct. 31 won't mark the end of frightful things.

Around here, it might be the beginning.

Smear campaigns aimed at blasting a political foe without adequate time to rebut are nothing new, but with municipal elections more heated than any we remember, this election season might set a record for ugliness.

In recent days we've seen personal attacks in the comments section of cdapress.com that go well beyond fair criticism. A number of alleged "facts" are also false, raising the stakes unwisely and unnecessarily.

We also have seen the seeds of not-so-subtle harassment being sowed. The anonymous commenter who listed the personal properties owned by one candidate and also provided the name, address and phone number of one of that candidate's children was stunned when she learned that she'd been banned from the website. That's how far the disconnect has grown for some bloggers who might or might not also be working for specific campaigns.

Civility? Apparently, some people don't understand the meaning of the word. That or they just don't care.

But the comments section of an online newspaper offers something that 11th hour, poison-pen mailings and other advertisements don't: an adequate opportunity to respond in like manner before the same audience. Other communication channels don't, and that's where we think the final weekend before the Tuesday, Nov. 5 election could be ethically horrifying.

The Press is letting all political camps know that if they're planning an ad or ads criticizing an opponent, those ads will not be published after Friday, Nov. 1. If the camps being criticized so choose, they can then rebut the attack ads right up to election day, but they can't launch any new attacks themselves. Publisher Jim Thompson of Post Falls will serve as arbitrator on disputes over what constitutes an attack ad, and what's a rebuttal.

Unfortunately, the U.S. Postal Service has no political arbitrators. We'll be pleasantly surprised if mailboxes throughout Kootenai County aren't packed with venomous assaults just prior to the Nov. 5 election.

We urge voters to be wary of the political messages they're about to be fed and, just as importantly, the timing of those messages. The more negative the message and the later it's delivered, the greater the likelihood that it contains falsehoods, partial truths and/or important details that have intentionally been left out.

Please, do your part to slam the door on unethical campaign advertising in Kootenai County. Ignore it.