Tell us: What do you want candidates to talk about?

I am once again asking for your participation in a Bulletin survey. 

For the second time this year, the Las Cruces Bulletin is soliciting your opinion as the keystone of our election coverage. We need to know what issues you are thinking about heading into the 2024 general election and what issues we should ask the candidates about. 

This survey is the same survey as the one we published in June, following the “Citizen’s Agenda” model.  Then, as now, I am inclined to explain why we're doing things differently.

If you don’t care to read a few hundred words of journalistic pontificating below, click here to fill out the survey.

It's got just one question: What do you want candidates to be talking about as they compete for your vote?

Traditional election reporting focuses on the candidates. Reporters ask questions like, “What’s your platform?” and “What’s your background?” 

These questions are useful. They translate the candidates' promises into sober, unbiased language and provide a very general picture of a candidate. But that’s not enough to fill an article. So the reporter is inclined to ask a few more questions about local issues, such as “Where do you stand on a proposed tax increase?” That’s good, in theory. As a voter, I want to know where candidates stand on the significant local issues. 

However, that method leaves a very important decision up to the reporter. They alone decide what issues should be questioned and which will be ignored. To some extent, that will happen no matter what, but the “Citizen’s Agenda” method forces the reporter to consider perspectives and issues they might not otherwise.   

That’s the power of this survey. It allows us to consider hundreds of perspectives and craft better questions that reflect our communities. 

I know it works because, during the primary, several candidates expressed concern about the questions. They said they were too hard or unfair to them, given their platforms. 

That’s a good thing. Your questions made them sweat, making them more reactive and accountable to the community.

That’s the goal again this year: ask good questions generated by the community that give the community real insight into the most important issues. So, thank you for reading and thank you for your participation. Together, let's make some democracy happen.

Justin Garcia is a news reporter for the Las Cruces Bulletin.