By Joel Phelps
The Arkadelphian

At The Arkadelphian, a free news website for the people of Clark County and around the world, transparency is important.

We realize that many involved in our local leadership may be a little intimidated by the prospect of having an online news outlet, and quite honestly we’re afraid they could feel left out.

That’s definitely not the goal in our recent callout for local political announcements. It’s come one, come all on this website, and we’re inviting you, Dear Reader, to notify your elected officials — whether it’s a school board member, justice of the peace or state legislator — that you value what The Arkadelphian has to offer and that you want him or her to submit a free political announcement (I’ll explain how).

It’s important that anyone willing to run for office introduce themselves to the public. Once the filing period at the County Clerk’s Office has passed, we’ll be posting a story that will include each individual by name. Within that story we will link each candidate’s name to their original announcement so our readers can click through and check out who’s running for office, et cetera.

Those who don’t submit will unfortunately be excluded from this free service, and we want to avoid at all cost any notion that our reporting is partial to any one candidate.

That in mind, we will not be soliciting any particular candidate to partake in this service. Word of The Arkadelphian is out there and the audience is growing daily, so ignorance of the service we’re providing is no excuse, especially considering The Arkadelphian’s presence at local meetings.

Here’s the rundown on getting those announcements to us before the March 1 deadline:

For those tech-savvy folks who just need assistance penning one, there is a form we can email — just send a quick note to editor@arkadelphian.com with Political Announcement in the subject. 

For those who wouldn’t know a computer from a router (likely the ones who aren’t reading their news online, but they’re equally as important), we will gladly accept written announcements so long as they’re post-marked by March 1.

Please include a photograph to run with the announcement.

Here’s how to contact us:

The Arkadelphian LLC
P.O. Box 13
Arkadelphia, AR 71923
editor@arkadelphian.com
501-304-2134