Just imagine if we had a newspaper in New Albany (1): Politically, it has been all Jeffersonville-centric.

Jeff Gillenwater's Fb summary of the differences in the News and Tribune's political coverage of Jeffersonville and New Albany is  clear and succinct.

He didn't have occasion to mention the piece examining mayoral candidate finance in Jeffersonville (not in New Albany).

In New Albany this political season, we've had two previews apart from debate coverage, one for council and the other for mayor. That's all.

Yes, it's true: New Albany's N and T reporter left his job just as the election season was approaching full boil. However, since the 2011 merger and the main office moving to Jeffersonville, it's a discussion about disparity that we've had more than once.

The newspaper will issue its standard denials, and so it goes. In a broader sense, the News and Tribune faces a future challenge shared by all traditional news outlets in the  area, which need to come to grips with the fact that we started voting two weeks ago. Print and television media released their election previews and information packages just this week. Probably 30% of voters, maybe more, already had voted by the time these appeared.

as for Jeffersonville/Clark County versus New Albany/Floyd, it's out of kilter, and speaking personally, I doubt it ever changes so long as the office is located in Jeffersonville. As usual, I hope I'm wrong.

Take it away, Jeff.

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The difference in the News and Tribune's political coverage of Jeffersonville and New Albany is sometimes pretty amazing. In Jeffersonville, they ran a fact check of mayoral debate claims; not in New Albany, where several Gahan claims would have proven less than truthful.

Now, in Jeffersonville, they're questioning whether a city publication is just publicly funded mayoral campaigning in light disguise. That sort of thing has been happening in New Albany consistently for years now but the paper has asked no such questions. Instead, they run articles like this one.

There's nothing in the record here suggesting that Team Gahan had anything to do with this cabinet company moving to the outskirts of New Albany nor did the business owners mention parks or pools - what Gahan calls "economic development" - as reasoning in support of their decision. The paper, though, runs the release alongside a photo Gahan has been using for campaign purposes, making an association where there is none just before the election. If the paper isn't going to question the mayor - something they have an abysmal record of not doing - perhaps they could at least question themselves a little.