Is it really possible? We’re still in the last days of summer, but…

Right around the corner is election season. We’ve put together some guidelines and thoughts about how we plan to approach coverage so that it’s clear for the candidates, their campaign staff and volunteers, supporters, voters and anyone else just how we hope to handling covering the election season’s news.

What follows below seems like a lot of rules…above all, we hope to remind everyone that we have a great set of policies in our Terms of Use that have set GOOD Morning Wilton on the right path since our start. Please feel free to give those a read. But don’t let the guidelines below sway you from taking part in our conversation. We encourage different opinions and contributions from our readers, as long as the tone stays considerate of one another. We’re fond of saying, ‘Let’s discuss the ideas, rather than attack one another.”

Letters to the editor
  • GMW.com welcomes letters to the editor from all Wilton residents.
  • Letters must be signed with full names; GMW.com does NOT publish anonymous letters or letters signed with a pseudonym.
  • Letters regarding the election and any candidates will be published on Fridays as part of a compilation story with all letters received during the week. Letters will be published in the chronological order in which they were received. There is a 10-letter limit per week. Any letter that is not included one week will be held for consideration the following week.
  • There is a 250-word limit for letters regarding candidates and election issues.
  • Please read our general policies and guidelines regarding content and comments. We reserve the right to reject a letter or request edits based on our terms of use.
  • While we encourage as much participation in the democratic process as possible, GMW.com will only publish more than one letter from the same writer during election season if space permits. We can only publish one letter per writer each Friday. We reserve the right to ‘bump’ a letter from a repeat-writer if other letters have been received.
  • Letters regarding local Wilton candidates and local Wilton-specific issues will also be given preference if space becomes an issue (i.e. we near our 10-letter limit).
  • If, for some reason, we feel a letter does not fit the editorial policies covered here, or the general policies of GMW.com, we will do our best to contact the author and request changes or suggest they consider alternative approaches.
  • We reserve the right to edit letters for grammar, spelling and GMW.com editorial style standard. We will NOT change letters for content.
  • All letters can be submitted via email to editor@goodmorningwilton.com.
Campaign Coverage
  • GMW.com is planning on sending candidates questions regarding local issues. We will submit the same questions to both/all candidates in the same race. We will set the same deadlines for both/all candidates. Answers will be limited to 200 words per question, unless the candidates are notified otherwise. We ask candidates and their campaign staff/volunteers to read our policies and guidelines as well when drafting their responses.
  • We will not be running any advance notices or editorial coverage of fundraisers.
  • We welcome submissions of op-eds from candidates and their staff/volunteers. Candidates will be identified as candidates. Word count is limited to 800 words.
  • Candidates will be limited to two op-eds apiece, from Sept. 1, 2014 through Oct. 31. There will be no op-eds to run after that date.
  • If campaigns would like to submit photographs for consideration, all files should be jpegs, preferably in horizontal format.
Endorsements:
  • GMW.com will not make any endorsements.
  • We will consider running announcements of third-party endorsements of candidates, when appropriate. Every effort will be made to confirm information and quotes.
News coverage of candidates APART from the campaign:
  • GMW.com will cover news as warranted. Should any candidate participate in any activity that is deemed newsworthy by GMW.com, coverage will follow accordingly. We will continue to monitor and assess our coverage from standards of fairness and equal access, acknowledging that those are different yet related.
  • When a candidate is covered in editorial reporting by GMW.com, he or she will be identified as being a candidate for election, regardless of whether the news event is campaign related.

Again, please read our Terms of Use regarding the tone of any communication from candidates and their supporters. We will not publish any letters or editorial material that we feel deviates from that editorial policy. As we’ve made clear in our Terms of Use, we encourage writers, be they candidates or voters, to focus on ideas and issues, not the person or the personal.

We also reserve the right to revisit and/or amend these guidelines if we feel it’s necessary. We encourage any reader—candidate or voter—to contact us and discuss anything related to our stated policy.