With less than a week now until Election Day, I’m running out of things to say about it but I want to keep the focus on it. It is the most important election we are likely to see in Suffolk for some time.

I’m hearing bits and pieces that things are starting to get a little hot … finally.

The newspaperman in me hates cordial, non-partisan elections. Politics is tough, dirty business and I like elections that reflect that because they are more entertaining. If everybody’s nice and likes one another, what’s the point?

Behind the scenes there are things going on that most of us don’t get to hear about. I heard yesterday about one local who had the audacity to send two of the candidates vying for a seat in one borough his own questionnaire. He must really be important, or at least think that he is.

What’s even more ridiculous is that I understand the two candidates are going to respond to it! Were it me, I think I would tell him where he could stick his questionnaire and then buy a full page ad in some newspaper (perhaps this one, call ad manager Earl Jones at 934-9607) announcing what I had done. It would probably be enough to send that candidate over the top…

…The more I think about it and talk to people, the more I’m convinced that this election is going to turn entirely on the tax rate.

The visceral reaction people have to the rapidly rising tax bills is impressive. I believe it’s to the point that most people are going to vote for the candidate who favors the biggest cut in the rate, not the 10-to-15-cent rate cut that’s being bandied about, but 20-cents-plus. Of course, the winner of this election, if not an incumbent, will not have any impact on what happens to the rate this year, but what do you think the odds are that we’ll be looking at the same situation next year? …

…I received a flyer at my home the other day about a forum tonight at the Ruritan meeting house in Chuckatuck among the candidates in the Chuckatuck borough n Joe Barlow, David Gray and Mary Hill. I’m hoping to attend and report on it here tomorrow, but my in-laws are coming in this evening for a visit and my wife says I was rude to them the last time they were here so I need to be a gracious host. If things go as they typically do, however, I’ll crack some joke that offends them and then be able to sneak out for it.