In every political campaign, there is usually enough of a dichotomy of personalities and platform rhetoric to turn our election seasons into a kind of Noah's Ark of choices. Scroll the current landscape and peruse the existing climate, and you will see two of everything: hawks and doves, New Wave reformers and Old Guard conservatives, loudmouths and soothsayers, and long-winded manifestos and ten-second soundbites.

In the race to occupy the Board of Supervisors seat in Kennett Township soon to be vacated by Robert Hammaker, you will find not a trace of vitriol or the finger-pointing accusations that have poisoned so many campaigns, both nationally and here in southern Chester County. Rather, the work that candidates Whitney Hoffman and Ted Moxon are doing in their campaigns to become the next Kennett Township supervisor are to be commended for their Jed-like focus on the issues that will affect Kennett Township residents for decades to come.

As detailed in two profiles that appeared in last week's edition of the Chester County Press, the respective campaigns of Hoffman and Moxon are studies in contrast. Hoffman is campaigning on the platform of increasing public safety; developing a more visible form of financial transparency; and boosting sustainable development, seen through increased Internet capability. If elected, she plans to use her knowledge of digital media to help the township acquire high-speed Internet services. Moxon's platform leans heavily on preserving open space, supporting increased trail networks, and examining ways of decreasing township taxes.

They have given the voters of Kennett Township the assurance that if elected, several of the key issues facing the township will be addressed over the course of their term on the board. They have insisted that if elected, they will use their own voice, and not those of the township's Old Republican Guard in Moxon's case, or that of Board Chairman Scudder Stevens and board member Dr. Richard Leff, as Hoffman has vowed.

When it comes to local elections, we at the Chester County Press will occasionally get our fingers smudgy in the local political fray, whether by wrestling with the various talking points raised by our candidates, or sometimes endorsing one individual over another. In the upcoming election that will decide the next supervisor of Kennett Township, however, we're staying clear of this one. It's a toss-up of differing viewpoints, as is the common nature of our political system, and it's for the residents of Kennett Township to decide. This, however, we choose to weigh in on: That the campaigns of Hoffman and Moxon are each substantive in their platforms and, even more importantly, being conducted on the rare plane of mutual admiration. After Nov. 3, only one will earn enough votes to sit alongside Leff and Stevens next year, but each has already earned our respect.