When Xóchitl Rodriguez Murillo announced her candidacy for the 3rd District Yolo County supervisor position, she did so via Facebook and her campaign website. When Mayra Vega made her announcement she sent out emails.

A third potential candidate, Dotty Pritchard — who is an aide to outgoing Supervisor Mary Sandy — called me personally to let me know she was running.

We’ll have to wait and see if other people enter the race since it’s still early.

Vega is a current Woodland City Council member. Murillo is a former Woodland Council member as well. Pritchard is a Woodland resident with a long history in the community.

Sandy was appointed to the position by Gov. Gavin Newsom in October 2023, following the death of her husband, then-Supervisor Gary Sandy. She was formally elected after running in 2024. She announced her intention not to seek election in 2026 over the weekend.

I was there when Gary announced his candidacy for the Woodland School Board, the Woodland City Council and later the Yuba Community College District Board of Trustees. Each time, Gary either stopped by the offices of The Daily Democrat or held a “press conference.”

I also know Murillo and Vega as well as Pritchard, having worked with each many times over the years.

What I want to talk about is the manner in which candidates for public office make their intentions known. These days it’s common to send out an email, post a note on Facebook or even X than it is to meet the press or invite the public to a formal announcement ceremony.

In Yolo County, the Courthouse steps provided the backdrop for years if not decades.

I had to look it up, but the last time a candidate held an actual ceremony was in January 2018, when Dean Johansson ran for Yolo County District Attorney. Johannson stood on the steps of the old Yolo County Superior Courthouse, where a small group of people held up a “Dean Johansson” banner.

Johansson spoke about his campaign and took questions, while reporters for The Democrat and Davis Enterprise took notes and photographs.

Looking further back in time, I found an old “Our Town” column I wrote in June 2013, about candidates being too “Davis-centric” because rather than using the Courthouse steps, they did so in Davis. Both Dan Wolk and Joe Krovoza, who at the time served on the Davis City Council, announced their intentions to seek the Assembly District 4 seat then held by Mariko Yamada, who was termed out of office.

Cecilia Aguiar-Curry, who was a late entry in the race, went on to win the election among a field of five candidates, which included Wolk and Don Saylor. Krovoza had dropped out. She announced in her hometown of Winters, where she served as mayor.

I have nothing against candidates announcing their intentions via email or Facebook, but I think it then becomes incumbent on the news media to start asking questions about why the candidate is running, their political philosophies, and what they feel their qualifications are to seek higher office.

Unfortunately, in today’s media-saturated environment (and I consider Facebook and X as part of the media) that rarely happens as many people today are more interested in the “who” and “what” rather than the “why and “how.”

In time, print and television journalists will catch up, doing feature profiles and question-and-answer interviews. But I think it would do local candidates some good to test themselves in a public setting when announcing their intentions.

Putting oneself out there in front of supporters and detractors is what politics is all about. And that can’t be experienced through an email or Facebook post.

Jim Smith is the former editor of The Daily Democrat, retiring in 2021 after a 27-year career at the paper.