If the City of Natchez’s municipal election season were a football game, the referee just blew the whistle marking the end of the first quarter.

The action on the field was not always pretty either, as a few candidates decided to play a little dirty and sling lots of mud. In almost every case, that decision backfired.

Perhaps voters actually love the city more than they like the drama surrounding politics?

With Tuesday’s Democratic primary over and a run-off set for May 15, the second quarter is under way.

A third quarter — the general election — will be on June 5. Hopefully no run-off, fourth quarter will be needed.

But before “play” resumes, we’d like all the players to huddle up and realize that the citizens of Natchez are wiser than in the past. No longer, it seems, do citizens blindly follow what others tell them to do at the polls. They make their minds up on their own.

To that end, we hope all of the players will promise not to sling mud, insult or talk falsely about the opposing team.

The best way to build Natchez up is to stop tearing each other down.

That can begin this week.

Whether or not your candidate won or lost on Tuesday doesn’t matter as much as your ability to care for the community more than your own personal whims and wishes.

Let’s have a clean, fair game folks. Now let’s play ball.