Decision time is upon us

As residents of the great state of Illinois, decision time is nearly upon us.

I refer of course to the March 20 Illinois Primary Election. I’d bet you’ve seen a sign or two as you’ve gone about your days telling you who someone else thinks you should vote for. Maybe you’ve even heard it from a politician in the flesh.

Whether you’re ready or not, election season is in full force and in Illinois, we are entering the home stretch before weighing in as a state on the national dialogue that will culminate with the November General Election.

We’ll address important issues voters should be aware of – such as important dates and other requirements to cast your ballot – in the coming weeks. For now, though, I encourage you to start familiarizing yourself – if you haven’t already – with what races will affect you that will appear on the March 20 ballot.

To help you, the Lake County Journal has put together a resource called “Election Central 2012.” It recently went live on our website and you can check it out at www.LakeCountyJournal.com/election. What you’ll find there is a voter resource guide to the upcoming Primary Election. Race by race, candidate by candidate, you can see who’s running in the contested races and what individual candidates think is important for voters to consider. In their own words, you can find out what’s important to specific candidates and what they feel sets themselves apart from the competition.

Invitations were sent to each candidate in contested races that pertain to the Lake County communities we cover. Candidates in each race were asked to fill out a bio with general information about themselves and answer questions about the issues facing the people they seek to represent. You can navigate the site based on individual candidates or on specific races.

With so many different people telling you so many different things as we approach both the primary and general elections, I think it’s important to scale back the rhetoric and offer a simple voter resource where you can see what candidates have to say for themselves. Of course, if you’d like to weigh in with your own thoughts or questions, I invite you to send me an email or letter to the editor.