Next weekend is the Labor Day holiday, and following that is what is generally viewed as the start of the general election campaign season.

While candidates for the fall ballot have already been out campaigning, early September is when the heavy advertising campaigns and travels on the trail really begin.

Here in Lawrence County, we have an unusual situation this year in that most local races on the ballot are uncontested, and the candidate on the ballot is automatically assured of election.

Other than the state Senate race to fill the seat vacated by the retiring Bob Peterson, there really is no competition going on at a local level this year, unusual for the usually busy races for offices such as county commission and county auditor.

Despite that, this election remains an important one, with all statewide offices up for election, as well as those for Congress.

Each election season, the Ironton Tribune publishes a guide for local races, in which we send out questionnaires to candidates and present their answers to voters.

While we will still do that for the state Senate race, the situation this year calls for a different approach.

Beginning early next month, we will send out questionnaires to major party candidates running for federal and statewide office who will appear on the Lawrence County ballot and we will publish those who respond.

Southern Ohio often gets overlooked by those running for the big offices, so this could be a unique chance to make your voice heard on these important elections.

We would like to hear from you – if you have an issue you would like to see addressed, or a question for those running for Ohio governor, attorney general, auditor, treasurer, supreme court or U.S. House or Senate, please send it along to us at briefs@irontontribune.com. (Use “candidate questionnaire” as the subject) or mail it to us at P.O. Box 647. Ironton, OH 45638 (Attn.: Heath Harrison) by Sept. 7.

On another note, this week our county was fortunate enough to see a visit from both of the major party candidates for governor. Incumbent Republican Mike DeWine paid a visit to Collins Career Technical Center on official business, while Democratic nominee Nan Whaley made a stop in Ironton as part of a tour of southern Ohio. Both DeWine and Whaley have been repeat visitors to our county in the past year and we thank them both for making the effort to come to southern Ohio and give residents here their time.