Every election season brings with it the same cast of characters: emotion, intensity, rhetoric. It can get hard not to take things personally.

Reporting everything about all candidates can be treacherous, especially when they are people you know, friends even. For every candidate pleased with coverage, there will be another offended and contingents of readers on both sides feeling the same way. When a newspaper endorses candidates on its editorial page, the intensity grows.

The Daily Reflector has traditionally recommended candidates. The paper has felt that going out on this limb is part of its obligation to the community. Here's how I mean that.

It is instructive to work through a position on a difficult issue; or during election season, to analyze a complex and competitive race for office. There are sufficient outlets for information about candidates' various stands: conservative, liberal, for this, against that. But there is not much objective evaluation or analysis of this information available at the local level.

An endorsement editorial attempts to provide this by considering and evaluating a candidate's expressed views and his experience along with his answers to questions posed by the newspaper. The time spent in this is something every voter would like to have spent before they enter a voting booth, but of course they cannot.

In its vicarious way, the endorsement editorial hopes to mimic that experience. A reader can work through the editorial as it makes its argument, agreeing with parts of it, disagreeing with other parts. This process can dramatically help both reader — and writer — understand often complicated issues.

The truly effective editorial endorsement, then, will provide background, information and context for considering and evaluating candidates and their particular race. It is a logical reflection of a set of principles and never a personal attack.

With this in mind, it should be emphasized that the newspaper holds all candidates in high regard for their willingness to serve. Running for office is a difficult undertaking. There are few callings higher than such service, much of it poorly compensated and largely unappreciated.

This year we have competitive races for state House and Senate. County commission seats have been contested in primaries earlier this year and will be again in Tuesday's general election. Pitt County's local candidates have conducted strong campaigns, with most attention on issues rather than personality.

In particular, Pitt County's Chief Superior Court Judge Rusty Duke has waged a strong statewide campaign for chief justice of the North Carolina Supreme Court and should be recognized for his effort. He has acquitted himself well across North Carolina in various venues and represented his home in a dignified and authoritative manner. However this race turns out, it has been important for Pitt County and eastern North Carolina to have such representation.

This is the desired end of all the sound and fury that election season brings with it: spirited debate on issues and dignified service to the cause of democratic government. We've seen this process at work here in Pitt County this year, and the newspaper through endorsements and news coverage has done its best to do its part.

It's time now for the rest of us to pitch in by heading to the polls on Tuesday.

Al Clark is executive editor of The Daily Reflector. Tell him what you think at 252-329-9560 or at aclark@coxnc.com.