POLITICS

How we chose our Election Panel

Alan Rosenberg
arosenbe@providencejournal.com
Alan Rosenberg

What are the issues that matter in this presidential year? What are Rhode Islanders looking for in a president? What do we make of important events along the road to the election?

Those are the questions I posed a few weeks ago as I announced that we wanted to form a Providence Journal Election Panel, made up of voters who would share their observations and concerns this election year.

To our delight, readers responded to my invitation. More than five dozen volunteered to join the panel.

Then came the hard part: putting the panel together. A lot of work went into crafting the group you see in our story on today’s front page.

We wanted our panel, as much as possible, to represent all Rhode Island voters. So we looked for many kinds of diversity.

Obviously, we needed Democrats, Republicans and unaffiliated voters. But we also looked for a range of ages; of men and women; of ethnic backgrounds; and of of cities and towns in the state’s various regions.

The challenge was that no one or two panelists could bring all the various attributes we were seeking. We wanted a panel that would be small enough for readers to remember, and identify with, its members. But we quickly figured out that a group of fewer than 10 just wouldn’t work.

In fact, we ended up with 17 members. And we’re under no illusion that even at that size, we’ve managed to capture all the rich variety we’d like to include, or a perfect balance of all the attributes. Even a group of 50 or 60 probably couldn’t do everything.

Yet the people who are on our panel are a terrific cross section of the state. We’ve got folks from Burrillville to Westerly, Newport to Woonsocket, and many places in between. Our panelists’ ages range from 17 to 84. There’s an engineer and an event planner, a college student and a physical therapist. And lots of other kinds of diversity as well.

Most importantly, their responses to those initial questions — What traits matter to you most in a presidential candidate? What issues do you care about most? What moment in the election cycle so far have you found most significant? — are thoughtful and enlightening.

So I’m proud to present our panel to you. As this momentous election year proceeds, I hope you’ll look forward to hearing more of what they have to say.

And if there are questions you’d like us to pose, please let me know at the email address below.

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If you’re tired of negative news — if you’d like to see the brighter side, all in one place — our new Positively RI email newsletter is the place for you.

In it, we’ll showcase the stories from our Positively Rhode Island project — stories that, as I wrote just before Thanksgiving, shine a light on good people doing good things in our community.

You can get them all if you go to providencejournal.com/positivelyri. Or we can send them to your inbox every week, via the newsletter, which launches soon.

And while you’re there, why not sign up for Gail Ciampa’s every-Wednesday “Food Feed,” visuals editor Michael Delaney’s every-Sunday “Director’s Cut,” and managing editor Mike McDermott’s five-afternoon-a-week “This Just In”?

So many ways to enjoy the journalism we produce at The Providence Journal.

Win PC Friars tickets

If you're a fan of David Duke, and Alpha Diallo and the rest of the Providence College Friars, this one's for you. We're giving away 25 four-packs of tickets to their Feb. 5 game at the Dunkin' Donuts Center against Creighton, which beat PC in a heartbreaker last Saturday.

Just go to providencejournal.com/ReaderContest and fill out the form. The giveaway ends Tuesday, Jan. 28, at 11:59 p.m.; winners will be notified the next day.

Another way in which we say "Thank you" for reading The Providence Journal and providencejournal.com. 

— Alan Rosenberg is The Journal’s executive editor.

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arosenberg@providencejournal.com

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