The start of a new year is always interesting. That's doubly true for an election year – particularly for journalists. Journalists who cover government no less.

But campaigns also bring a whole lot of noise. There's the noise of the candidates themselves, sparring among themselves about topics that have little to nothing to do with campaign policy. There's noise from the pollsters, television ads, interest groups. And there's the noise from journalists, trying so hard to cover not only what's said on the campaign trail but what's not said – unearthing morsels that candidates so often wish could be left well enough alone.

So, as 2016 gets underway, here's our plan: cover the election (how can we not?) but stick to our sweet spot of government management. We'll dig into candidates' positions on government workforce, acquisition and IT. We'll keep an ear open for comments on homeland security – less as it relates to domestic and international policy, and more to system requirements and operations. We'll continue coverage we've already begun on the transition of administrations – a monumental task for outgoing and incoming alike.

And we'll focus a lot of time on the perspective of the federal workforce – not only via the unions, but the individual employees as well. What's resonating? What's being shamefully ignored?

Truth be told, this isn't an easy task. I could recite a laundry list of topics that will dominate the campaign conversation during the next year, but government management won't likely be one of them. It's often a footnote in presidential campaigns, typically tied to comments on defense spending or cybersecurity or some high profile failures – think botched rollout of HealthCare.gov, for example, or  mismanagement at the Department of Veterans Affairs.

So, our reporters will have to do a bit more digging.

What do we know now? We know the American Federation of Government Employees endorsed Hillary Clinton. It came rather early in the campaign season, I'd argue, but Clinton has spoken the most directly about federal operations over the course of her political career, particularly when you include her past primary run. Last time around she offered a 10-point plan "to restore Americans' confidence in their government" with controls on lobbying, enhanced protections of whistleblowers, and decreased reliance on contractors. Will she push that agenda again? We don't know yet; but it's more than what we have to go on for other candidates.

But in fairness, it's only January. Things will get far more interesting after the primaries.

About Jill Aitoro

Jill Aitoro is editor of Defense News. She is also executive editor of Sightline Media's Business-to-Government group, including Defense News, C4ISRNET, Federal Times and Fifth Domain. She brings over 15 years’ experience in editing and reporting on defense and federal programs, policy, procurement, and technology.

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