In a little over a month, Adams County voters will head to the polls for the August primaries.

Voters face a pretty big challenge in becoming informed on the issues since nearly 50 local candidates are running for all sorts of county and state offices.

The ideal candidate for office varies wildly, but a few general absolutes, however, exist in the quest for the best candidate.

First, any candidate who gets my vote must be honest and must promise to treat public money like it was his own money.

Nothing is more disappointing than a public official who becomes corrupt in office and forgets that he works for the people and is entrusted with their money.

Another basic is something that’s rarely discussed at the local level — a desire to make government smaller and more efficient.

Too often one of the first things new elected officials do is build their fiefdom.

New employees are hired and government expands. That expansion is rarely a good thing for the public. Often it’s an example of more and more government inefficiency.

So let’s consider a few other issues that help determine the priorities of a local elected officials.

Many, many candidates will say their No. 1 issue is job creation.

On the county level, for instance, supervisor candidates will often talk about the need to create jobs — good jobs, as they usually qualify the phrase.

But other than hiring more people and thus expanding the government’s bottom line, job creation is not the responsibility of county supervisors.

Few elected officials even moderately help create jobs.

Here in Natchez-Adams County, the City of Natchez and Adams County have for a number of years jointly funded the Natchez-Adams County Economic Development Authority. The EDA is the job creation engine.

In fact, the best way for the city and county to help with job creation is to be supportive when a prospect arises, but to immediately hand it over to the EDA.

Any candidate worth his or her salt will realize this and vow to support the EDA for years to come.

Good candidates should publicly express their support for issues that have long received lip service, but no action.

A big example of that is county recreation. City and county leaders have all spoken about the need for increased recreation, but for years and years little to nothing has been done.

The two groups need to pool their resources and develop state-of-the-art recreation facilities for residents’ use.

Another lip-service only issue has involved the care of the mentally ill. Many, many families face the unpleasant task of having to deal with a family member who is fighting mental illness. In many of these cases, the families are left with few options, as our area has no full psychiatric ward at any of the local hospitals.

Our community has worked this issue in the past, but like the recreation need, nothing actually came of the years of discussion.

The mentally ill should not be forced out of the community or, in the worst cases, into the law enforcement realm just because of a lack of facility.

Unfortunately, neither the children who are most likely to benefit from the recreational facilities nor the mentally ill are often high on the list of many would-be candidates.

Those groups may not be able to vote, but we can vote for them. Stay tuned to the pages of this newspaper and we’ll work to get you the answers to help you determine which candidate should get your vote on Election Day.

Kevin Cooper is publisher of The Natchez Democrat. He can be reached at 601-445-3539 or kevin.cooper@natchezdemocrat.com.