Is it too soon for primary coverage?

During the past weeks, the Daily Pilot has covered several political

races in a fair amount of detail: the 70th Assembly District and the

35th Senate seat, which have primaries next March, and the 2004 race

for the Costa Mesa City Council.

All three have interesting stories: the 70th is turning on one

candidate’s 1996 support of President Clinton; the 35th is a battle

between two assemblymen that has included questions of character; and

the Costa Mesa council, with the replacement of Karen Robinson and

the stepping down of Eric Bever from consideration for her seat, is a

grand setup of the city’s “improver” group going against its

establishment.

A few readers, as well as interested parties among those involved

in the races, have thanked the paper for focusing on these political

stories so early on -- earlier, and certainly in far more detail,

than any other local media have.

It is part of the makeup of this paper -- a fortunate one, I argue

-- that we can publish and focus on stories of interest to our

readers that might not get much coverage in other media outlets.

(This can run both ways of course. While most would argue it is

good we can give day-to-day coverage to the replacement of a Costa

Mesa City Council member, some might feel differently about stories

on ... well, a number come to mind, and to avoid my voice mail being

full before I get to work today, I’ll leave it to the readers’

memories.)

At the same time, it strikes me as possible that we just might be

too early on these stories. This thinking is based, in part, on the

flurry of stories surrounding the debate earlier this month among the

Democrats running for the presidential nomination.

That debate, on a Saturday evening in South Carolina, did not get

the type of coverage (front page, with sidebars and many, many

reporters) it would have a year from now.

The Washington Post ran the story on A4. The Los Angeles Times ran

its preview of the story on A21 and its coverage of the debate ran on

A26. That story included this line: “Although the debate was a

premier event on the political calendar, it was a limited draw beyond

the Drayton Hall Theatre, where it was held before an audience made

up of supporters of individual campaigns and political activists in

general.”

Not exactly blockbuster. But when people aren’t interested in a

story, to a certain extent, it is hard to make it news.

And at this point, people are not interested in who will be the

one to challenge President Bush next fall.

The questions then before us are whether people are interested in

who will replace John Campbell in the 70th Assembly seat; whether

Campbell will overcome fellow Assemblyman Ken Maddox in the race to

replace state Sen. Ross Johnson; and what the makeup of the Costa

Mesa City Council will be at the end of 2004.

If you aren’t, let me know, and we can tone down the coverage. If

you are, also let me know so I’ll be reassured that I’m not alone

here.

* S.J. CAHN is the managing editor. He can be reached at (949)

574-4233 or by e-mail at s.j.cahn@latimes.com.