It’s election season in Sedona and we have seven candidates running for five seats on City Council.

No candidates put forth their names to challenge incumbent Mayor Sandy Moriarty, making her reelection a foregone conclusion.

For the rest of the field, candidates who win 50 percent plus one vote in the primary election on Tuesday, Aug. 30, will be declared the winner. If candidates don’t reach that threshold, they will continue on to the general election on Tuesday, Nov. 8.

Four candidates are running for two open seats plus the seat recently vacated by former Vice Mayor Mark DiNunzio. Vice Mayor John Martinez and Councilwoman Jessica Williamson are running for reelection against challengers Joe Vernier and John Currivan. Three of these four will be elected by November.

Due to the January resignation of Councilwoman Angela LeFevre, council appointed Tom Lamkin to finish out the rest of her 2016 term, then opened a two-year seat running from November until 2018, when it returns to a four-year regular seat in the normal election cycle.

Appointed by council in March, Lamkin is running to retain the seat against challenger Gerhard Mayer.

Not every resident can attend forums, nor can candidates speak to every voter. So in keeping with our typical election coverage, all the candidates answered a series of questions posited by Assistant Managing Editor Ron Eland. We will be running two of these stories every Friday as well as two candidate-written essays inside the paper.

Stories and candidate essays by Currivan and Martinez are in today’s newspaper. Stories and essays by Vernier and Williamson will appear next Friday, Aug. 5, while stories and essays about Lamkin and Mayer will appear Aug. 12. Moriarty’s story and essay will appear Aug. 19.

To be fair, we do not publish endorsement letters to the editor, nor attacks on individual candidates. If you feel strongly for a candidate or candidates, I recommend you contact our Advertising Department at (928) 282-7795 and purchase a display ad.

Letters calling on candidates to address issues, however, are more than welcome. Candidates need to know what concerns voters have and the best way to do that is through a forum like our Opinion page. Remind them and other voters what issues are important to you and your neighbors.

We encourage our readers to read these stories and essays before deciding for whom to vote. What candidate addresses issues you think are important? Who seems like he or she has the most integrity, the least ego and will spend taxpayer funds prudently to benefit residents?

Voters must base their votes on individuals and their policies not their party because City Council elections are blessedly nonpartisan — something which higher county, state and national offices should try.

If you miss any of these stories, we will be posting them online and publish a roundup of them all prior to election day. Vote wisely.