Meet the Candidates: Your Voice, Your Vote, Your Community

This Sunday marks the launch of one of the most essential public service initiatives we produce each election year — our Meet the Candidates series. Beginning today, readers can visit www.cdapress.com and click on the Meet the Candidates tab to watch exclusive interviews with candidates running for mayor, city council, and local school boards across Kootenai County.

The Meet the Candidates program is designed to help voters make informed, confident choices before casting their ballots. Produced in partnership with the Coeur d’Alene Regional, Post Falls, Hayden and Rathdrum chambers of commerce through the Joint Public Policy Committee — and filmed by our partners at Quicksilver Studios — this year’s series features more than two dozen local candidates who stepped up to share their priorities, leadership philosophies and perspectives on the challenges and opportunities facing North Idaho.

Over two days of taping, moderators Lindsay Allen, Naomi Boutz, Javis Cornett, Helo Hancock and Tyrel Stevenson interviewed candidates for the Coeur d’Alene, Post Falls, Hayden and Rathdrum City Councils; mayoral races in Coeur d’Alene and Post Falls; and the Coeur d’Alene, Post Falls and Lakeland School Boards.

The format is straightforward and fair: each candidate had one minute for introductions, two minutes per question, and one minute for closing remarks. The questions, crafted with community input, reflect issues we all care about — housing affordability, local governance, education, taxes and the future character of our towns.

The Hagadone Media team takes our role as a community connector seriously. Our mission is to make sure that every voter has direct access to credible, unfiltered information — not sound bites, not slogans, but the words and ideas of the individuals who seek to represent you. Democracy thrives when citizens are informed, and these interviews are one of the best ways to see and hear candidates in their own words, side by side and on equal footing.

In today’s political climate, it’s easy to feel overwhelmed or cynical about local elections. But these Meet the Candidate conversations remind us how much our communities still care. Whether you agree or disagree with a candidate’s position, taking the time to listen is the first step toward building understanding — and toward shaping the kind of North Idaho we want for the next generation.

I invite you to visit our “Meet the Candidates” page, starting today at www.cdapress.com under the Meet the Candidates tab, where you can explore the interviews and share them with friends and family. Your engagement is what keeps democracy vibrant and your vote — informed and thoughtful — is what moves our communities forward.

See you at the polls.

Clint Schroeder, 

President & Publisher

Hagadone Media Group