My latest op-ed, title above, appeared in The Virginian-Pilot Wednesday. It is very easy to be overwhelmed by the upticket races and overlook those local ones, which I believe are even more important.
Although a little difficult to locate on the site, PilotOnline has voter guides for the local candidates:
Virginia Beach
Mayor
City Council
School Board
Suffolk
Mayor and City Council
School Board
Portsmouth
Mayor and City Council
School Board
Check them out, check out the paper’s endorsements and vote.
My column appears in The Virginian-Pilot on Wednesdays (unless something comes up, in which case it’s Thursdays). You can see the columns as they are published here, or navigate to them from the PilotOnline.com homepage by clicking on Opinion and then choosing my name at the bottom of the dropdown list. You can also see the columns by liking my Facebook page. Although my column appears weekly, I am not and have never been an employee of The Virginian-Pilot.
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VIVIAN J. PAIGE | All Politics is Local 
That’s why I prefer that the local elections NOT be the same day as the national elections.