THE COMING OF THE CANDIDATE CHARTS: Well, we're starting Primary Countdown Week Minus 2, when sort-of-likely voters begin to realize there's an election coming. The PD celebrated by having Brent Larkin explain the editorial board's endorsement process (though strangely, he leaves out the step where the publisher comes in and tells them who to endorse) and printing their first Candidate Chart (not on line). (Update... commenter Brian found it here. Thanks, Brian!)

You know the Candidate Chart. At the top are the candidates' smiling faces. Below each smiling face is a series of quotations or characterizations of positions on issues the PD deems important. This morning's Chart has eight smiling faces and ten issue questions, the first eight of which allow for only "yes" or "no" as an answer.

So we learn that four of the eight candidates (Triozzi, Draper, Patmon and Brown) do not "support a Wal-Mart 'supercenter' at Steelyard Commons or any other location in Cleveland", three (Campbell, Lynch and Nelson) do, and Jackson wouldn't answer yes or no. Similarly, four candidates (Draper, Lynch, Patmon, Brown) apparently oppose "any form of taxes, from bed tax to restaurant to sin tax to sales tax -- to help pay for a new convention center", while Campbell, Jackson, Triozzi and Nelson apparently "support raising... any form of taxes" for this purpose.

What do these questions and answers mean? Probably not much. At best they give voters a clue to the candidates' basic sympathies, or at least the sympathies they want to seem to have. In their Meet The Bloggers interviews, Triozzi, Draper and Patmon were all highly critical of the Steelyard Commons Wal-Mart deal, but none of them was willing to say that he'd do anything as Mayor to try to unravel it. And Lynch went on at length about building a big convention center and getting cities throughout the region to help pay for it, presumably with some kind of tax money -- while Jackson and Triozzi were considerably less enthusiastic. All of them would probably say their actual positions are distorted by the yes-or-no format, and they'd probably be right.

Nonetheless, the PD's first Candidate Chart is not a bad first effort. It covers a pretty good set of topics, and it will give all the candidates some 'splainin' to do at forums in the coming two weeks.

What else is going to get featured in future PD Candidate Charts? The schools and economic development, of course. Regionalism? Technology? Probably. But how about corruption? How about neighborhood social breakdown? How about home foreclosures? How about public health threats like spreading HIV and rampant childhood asthma? (Candidate Lynch told Meet The Bloggers that he'd eliminate the City's Public Health Department.) How about high home energy costs including the City's own Public Power rates?

We can only wait and see what the PD thinks is important. Meanwhile, if you want to know what the candidates actually say about Wal-Mart, the convention center issue, casinos, Council reduction, residency requirements, etc. when they have time to say it, start listening to those Meet The Bloggers interviews. Only two weeks left!