Published: December 05, 2007 11:22 am      

A good crop

Concern about lack of candidates unnecessary

A week or so ago, we were concerned about the prospect of having no primary election for the Cumberland city council. We should not have worried.

At the time of our editorial, no candidates had filed. Seven are needed to hold a primary election for the two open seats.

But when filing deadline ended Monday, 13 candidates had stepped forward.

Councillwoman Mary Beth Pirolozzi filed her candidacy, as did Brian Grim, Bernie Lechman, Gerald Chambers, Albert Keener, Carol Cauley, Jim Combs, Devon D'Atri, Lindsay Farris, David Kauffman, Dan Morris, Mike Records and Bill Taccino.

Unfortunately, interest in the Allegany County school board race was not nearly as great. Only three candidates are in the running for the two open seats. They are the incumbents, Jeff Metz and Fred Sloan, and challenger Tim Iman.

Because five candidates were required for a primary election to be held, the school board voting won't occur until the Nov. 4 general election.

While we are disappointed that only a few candidates are seeking the school board seats, it is heartening to see the interest being expressed in the city council race.

With a field of more than a dozen candidates for two seats, the electorate has plenty of choice.

We commend all of the candidates for expressing their civic pride by running for public office.

Next comes the hard part - convincing voters to take a little time on Feb. 12 and turn out at the polls.