Ever want to know what a candidate really thinks?

Is the only information you know about the candidates what you hear on the news or read in the newspaper?

Sadly enough, you're not alone. But there is help out there in the form of the upcoming Daily Bee and Ponderay Community Development Corp. candidates forum at Hooties in Ponderay. The forum will begin at 6 p.m. on May 18.

All of the candidates in contested primary races have been invited to attend. Other candidates also may attend and there's likely to be other elected officials peppered throughout the crowd.

It's an important election — both open county commission seats are contested and, depending on how the outcome goes, could take the county in radically different directions.

There are important choices to be made in a host of other local races — as well as on the state level, which features a host of candidates seeking to replace Dirk Kempthorne as Idaho's next governor.

Not only is it important to vote — but it's important to know who you're voting for, to know what the candidate stands for and not what they're promising simply to get elected.

It's easy to sound good when you're limited to a scripted 30-second sound bite over which you have complete control. It's not so easy when a fired-up homeowner, backed up by a hundred-plus friends and neighbors, is standing in front of you, demanding answers to ever-increasing property taxes, rampant growth and aging infrasctures.

Want to know where a candidate really stands?

Show up at PCDC and the Bee's forum next Thursday.

Caroline Lobsinger is the managing editor of the Daily Bee.