Although I believe this phrase is self-explanatory, I will include a brief definition of "the silly season" for those who just arrived from Mars:
The silly season - the few months of heavy campaigning coming before an election - is known by this appellation because many candidates will do or say anything in order to draw coverage to their campaigns and not the campaigns of others.
OK, with that definition in mind, let's deal with some reader complaints about candidate coverage.
One man called this week and said he did not think it was fair to run the photo of Salt Lake County Mayor Nancy Workman above the photos of other people running for the embattled mayor's seat. "She will not win, so you should put the photos of other candidates above hers." The caller wanted a photo of Joseph Irish, the Personal Choice candidate for county mayor, placed above Workman's.
Stop it. Irish apparently does not show up for campaign events, is not campaigning in other usual ways and has a history of signing up as a candidate for office and then not following through.
As Communities Editor Dave Noyce explains it:
"We strive for full, fair and informative coverage of all candidates actively campaigning for office. That means candidates who do more than merely file for office. That means candidates who walk the neighborhoods, show up at forums and debates and make an effort to spread their message to woo the masses. There is a reason it's called 'running' for office."
Noyce's reporters cover city and county elections as they occur, plus report information on county and municipal political races other places in the state.
Tribune reporter Dan Harrie, dean of the political reporters in Utah and an adjunct professor at the University of Utah, explains The Tribune's operational guidelines on covering statewide offices, such as governor, by stressing that viable candidates will get more coverage than those who just signed up to say they had run.
And, Harrie points out, coverage of the main gubernatorial candidates can vary from day to day:
"Democratic gubernatorial candidate Scott Matheson Jr. is getting equivalent coverage with Republican Jon Huntsman Jr. in The Tribune. Most of the stories written about the governor's race include both candidates, usually in a debate format or profile format.
"That changes when one of the candidates does something particularly newsworthy in the judgment of reporters and editors -- such as when Huntsman recently announced his proposal for moving the Utah State Prison from its current site in Draper. The same day, when Matheson, announced his plan for creating a Homeland Security Advisory Council, the news got smaller, less prominent play based on news editors' judgment that it was a less newsworthy, controversial development.
"Personal Choice gubernatorial candidate Ken Larsen is getting little coverage. He has not appeared at debates with the major-party candidates and has done little obvious campaigning outside of sending e-mails to reporters. Larsen has run for public office in every election for many years and, in some ways, seems more interested in getting attention than votes."
Certainly this will be disheartening news to members of the Libertarian, Personal Choice, Green and other smaller parties. But the reality in this country is that two political parties dominate the fund-raising, candidate, party worker and registration ranks in the country. So in most races candidates from one of those two parties will be the winner in a race.
As for me, the fun race of this November will be to see how many write-in votes Ellis Ivory can garner in the Salt Lake County mayor's race.
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The Reader Advocate's phone number is (801) 257-8782. Write to the Reader Advocate, The Salt Lake Tribune, P.O. Box 867, Salt Lake City, Utah 84110. E-mail: reader.advocate@sltrib.com.
6: Readers who think BYU football gets more coverage than the Utes.
18: Readers angry about articles on hunting.
23: Readers sick of Michael Moore coverage.
15: Readers angry over minor party political coverage.
