CNN sold its Super Tuesday coverage as the 40 hours of politics.

While the statement was true, there was something missing from these 144,000 seconds of television.

It wasn’t fancy graphics, or up–to–date information. And it wasn’t victory speeches by the candidates or pundits debating.

What CNN missed was local political coverage.

Sure, it’s not as sexy or entreating as a presidential primary. More, however, may have been decided by the votes cast for local representation, rather than national or statewide races, on Tuesday.

While the presidential candidates get all the attention from the media, it seems the local representative is kept off in some locked green room.

But the blame for this can’t go to CNN or the other large cable news networks. These entities have to focus on national coverage, so we can’t expect them to cover local elections.

The issue, however, is that most voters get caught up in the national level of government. Voters seem to forget all about the representatives that are meant to speak for them at that very level of government.

While citizens learn, hopefully, all about the now five presidential candidates, they may not be able to name more than two people running for their local congressional district. And these politicians will have a greater impact on your daily life than whoever is president.

Thus, being educated and voting in local elections is even more important than who you cast your ballot for president. These are the elections where your vote counts the most.

This case is greatly demonstrated by the Democratic primary in the 14th District. In that party’s general primary, Bill Foster received 31,910 votes, while John Laesch captured 31,587 votes. A whopping difference of 323 votes - 0.43 percent - separated the two candidates.

If students become more educated and show more interest in these local elections, we could expect these candidates to take up our issues more readily than those running for president. If we show interest in these political races, we in return will see these politicians taking interest in us.

And in an election separated by only 323 votes, the voices of students could easily make the difference.

So keep watching CNN, FOX News or MSNBC. But don’t forget to watch the public access channel, as well.

Sure, it may not have the glitter or budget of the big-time networks, but it may play a bigger part in your life than you think.

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