Over the coming months, candidates in each party will make their intentions known for the offices they seek and the platforms they will campaign on.

On one side of most races, you will have those candidates pushing for change, while on the other the candidate will campaign for four more years.

The races will be for national offices, such as Congress, to those at the state and local levels. It will be these races that often find a way to divert from well-intentioned, issue-based campaigns to personal assassinations.

As potential candidates work on their decisions on whether to run, they can make the decision right now to commit to what kind of campaign they will run.

A candidate must decide if they are going to run a campaign rich in ideas. Are they going to run a campaign that works to build up their community, their county or their state?

Or, are they going to go down the lazy, cheap road of taking cheap shots at their opponent? Are they going to run a campaign based on one-liners and personal shots?

Today, we call on each candidate and those deciding to run, to run honorable, honest campaigns with the voters in mind. Run a campaign that works to educate the voters rather than appealing to the lesser of our emotions.

When campaigns are run with the voters in mind and the improvement of our communities at heart, then we all win, regardless of who has the most votes.