This week’s front page wraps up a 12-part series of questions and answers from candidates for the Smithfield Town Council. We hope readers have found it useful in preparing to cast their ballots in a critically important election. 

Many of you have thanked us for asking important questions and printing the candidates’ responses. Unlike many newspapers, we don’t endorse political candidates. We’ve never been a fan of newspapers telling people how they should vote. We do, however, have a sacred obligation to educate our readers on the qualifications and views of candidates so that informed votes can be cast.

Between our Q&A series and an Oct. 10 candidate forum at which additional questions were asked and answered, we hope voters are sufficiently informed. If you missed any of the questions or couldn’t attend the forum, email us at news@smithfieldtimes.com and we will send you the links.

As letters to the editor in last week’s and this week’s editions have noted, voters have a very clear choice to determine the future direction of town governance.

Mayor Steve Bowman made a passionate case for the election of incumbents Jim Collins and Raynard Gibbs in an endorsement letter last week. Bowman understands well what is at stake, including his own future as mayor, as the new council will decide in January to keep him or boot him from that position. The election of one challenger, Bill Harris, is virtually assured, as he is the only candidate for the unexpired term of former Councilman Wayne Hall, who resigned last year in the wake of sexual assault charges. That reduces Bowman’s majority, now a solid 5-2, to 4-3 regardless of how the rest of the vote goes on Nov. 5. 

If Collins or Gibbs fails to win one of four seats being decided for four-year terms, Bowman’s majority is gone. If both of them lose, town voters will have dramatically reshaped the Town Council for the next two years, during which critical decisions will be made, especially on growth and development. 

Perhaps that’s why the race has taken a salty turn down the stretch, with former county Supervisor Dick Grice, an ally of the current Town Council majority, mass distributing a flier to town residences attacking this newspaper’s publisher and who he called the “Gang of Four” – incumbent Michael Smith and challengers Harris, Mary Ellen Bebermeyer and Darren Cutler, who have the backing of a political action committee called Citizens for Responsible Leadership. CRL, as it calls itself, released a video contrasting Gibbs’ campaign statements about “small-town charm” with his voting record as a town and county planning commissioner. 

The gloves are off, with the final verdict in the hands of voters.