The Public Editor: The Bee is focusing resources on the mayoral race

Usually, Sacramento's mayoral elections are sleepy, insular affairs, dutifully exercised every four years and drawing little outside notice. This year, though, things are much, much different.

Think of it as a miniversion of the Arnold Schwarzenegger politician/celebrity phenomenon. The top two contenders in the seven-person field are Heather Fargo, the two-term incumbent, and Kevin Johnson, the homegrown former NBA All-Star making his first foray into elective politics.

Fargo lacks pizazz but has a long public track record. Johnson generates excitement but is a very private and controversial public figure.

The race is a three-month sprint to election day June 3, a period condensed even more by many voters mailing in their ballots beginning a month ahead of time.

And one of the things about this election, said The Bee's David Holwerk, is "there's clearly an edge to the campaigns."

"There's a combustible mix of race, gender, school politics, age and clashing interest groups," noted Holwerk, the editorial pages editor. "This is a race in which anything could happen."

For The Bee, election coverage is a serious undertaking.

"This is a really important race for this city," said Deborah Anderluh, the paper's city editor. "We want voters to have a sense of the qualifications of the two people so they have an opinion of whom they want to vote for."

Anderluh has assigned two of the paper's best and most veteran reporters to the campaign, Terri Hardy and Dorothy Korber. The workload is so large and the timeframe so limited, though, that a few days ago, Anderluh assigned a third reporter to the election, veteran Mary Lynne Vellinga.

"We want to make sure we've done our due diligence," explained Anderluh. "We want to look at both (Fargo and Johnson). We've had years of following Heather Fargo and what she has done as mayor … (with Johnson) we're trying to get a sense of who he is, his style and to look at his enterprises and programs he's been involved in.

"Time is short and we also need other types of reporting, like who is lining up behind who, what are the issues, why Heather Fargo is having to fight so hard."

For Hardy and Korber, the work has been intense and time-consuming, sometimes stretching into six- and seven-day weeks.

The news last week that Phoenix police in 1996 investigated an allegation of Johnson molesting a teenage girl turned into a 13-hour workday for the pair, who jokingly say, "We're harnessed together."

That's only a bit of a stretch.

The two are friends who have known each other 10 years. They first met when they worked in the same Sacramento bureau run by MediaNews, Hardy for the Los Angeles Daily News and Korber for the Long Beach Press-Telegram. They collaborated in reporting and writing a weekly column about state Capitol news, an arrangement similar to their roles today covering the mayor's race.

Each came to The Bee eight years ago and they sit next to each other in the same office pod. Their relationship, built on familiarity, trust, candor, humor and hard work, is strong.

They have a tendency to finish each other's sentences and thoughts.

It's a tag-team that has made for good organization and smoothness of coverage, which ultimately benefits readers.

One concept the Hardy-Korber team has embraced is "truth-telling" in reporting candidates' claims.

The two reporters are making significant efforts to find out if the claims are true.

"We want to hold them accountable," Korber said.

For example, when Fargo alleged that Johnson owed back taxes, it turned out her claim was not quite accurate and much of the data was old.

While the two have plotted an overall coverage plan and strategy, they said they also are flexible, because campaigns develop a life of their own.

"We have to go where the news takes you. You then go back and reassess and rethink things," Hardy said. "It's always evolving; breaking news and doing in-depth things."

In the past, the standard blueprint for ascension to mayor was a by-the-numbers template of community service, time spent on the City Council, making nice with the Sacramento Democratic machine and essentially paying your dues.

Johnson's candidacy has turned that upside down. He is the wild card.

Yet how he has handled St. HOPE Academy and the transformation of Sacramento High School into a charter school and his business redeveloping parts of Oak Park – all which have their vocal critics – are now open for scrutiny.

A new element in the coverage is the importance of sacbee.com. While the Web site provides readers with timely news, it also expands the workload.

Korber and Hardy may write and update an online story several times a day, only to then face the additional task of writing the story for the paper.

Because each feels the responsibility to write as complete a story as possible for both entities, the notion of a short-cut for online reports is professionally distasteful.

The increasing popularity of mail-in voting has the reporters feeling they have a short time to do a lot work and get their stories out.

It's a pressure that Holwerk and his editorial pages colleagues feel, too.

In part because of that and because there's no guarantee there will be a November runoff, The Bee will make an endorsement in the primary, he said.

Holwerk's staff has published several election editorials and has asked readers to submit questions they want posed to the candidates.

In addition, The Bee is a sponsor of the only debate scheduled, on May 7.

"Obviously," Holwerk said, "this is a very important mayoral election. … Voters have a very clear choice and that's heightened the importance of it."

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About the writer:

• The Public Editor deals with complaints and concerns about The Sacramento Bee's content. His opinions are his own. You can contact the Public Editor by mail at P.O. Box 15779, Sacramento, CA 95852; or by calling him directly at (916) 321-1250.