Our questions for local candidates on Johnson County’s Nov. 7 ballot

A forum for Kansas House candidates in the Blue Valley area hosted by the Post last year. File photo.

Earlier this summer, we asked readers what you wanted to hear the candidates running for local offices talk about as they vie for your vote.

Based on your input, we’ve developed candidate questionnaires based in part on the topics that readers sent in.

Among the most talked about issues, as you’ll see, include rising property taxes and simmering discussions about housing affordability and zoning that several Johnson County communities are starting to have.

Our approach to election coverage, which is designed to center the interests of average voters over political parties and power brokers, follows the “Citizens Agenda” model used by other media outlets around the country.

“As we’ve done for more than a decade now, we’re working to get the candidates on record about the issues Johnson County residents care about most,” Post founder and publisher Jay Senter said. “Our goal is to help voters find the candidate who best reflects their own views before they cast their ballots.”

We are distributing these questionnaires to the candidates this week. We’ll begin publishing their responses on the Post’s site on Oct. 23, publishing a response to one question per day through Oct. 27, right before early in-person voting begins in Johnson County on Saturday, Oct. 28.

Also, we are hosting 11 nights of live, in-person candidate forums in coming weeks to give voters another chance to see where candidates stand on the important issues.

Click on the links below to see questions for each race:

Leawood Mayor and City Council

Overland Park City Council

Blue Valley school board

Johnson County Community College Board of Trustees

WaterOne Board