There’s a primary election in Vicksburg Tuesday.

Does it matter?

Consider that the four people on the ballot are asking to be responsible for:

• Managing about $100 million of the money we will pay for car tags, property taxes and in sales taxes over the next four years plus millions more in gaming revenue and state and federal grants.

• Creating or managing the recreation infrastructure, allocating resources for new or maintained swimming, baseball, softball, picnicking and general use area.

• Staffing and equipping fire, rescue and ambulance services to provide lifesaving services.

• Staffing and equipping a civilian police force to keep order and conduct thorough and professional criminal investigations.

• Selecting leaders for the fire, police and all other departments to provide optimum use of public assets to deliver the highest-possible quality of public services.

• Overseeing the staffing and management of water, gas and sewer and sanitation utilities with more than 10,000 customers, assuring reliable services via a well-maintained infrastructure at the lowest possible pricing.

• Promoting Vicksburg as a place to reside, provide employment and invest.

• Managing about 600 employees and an annual payroll of about $18 million.

• Guiding the continuing development of the city through zoning decisions and industrial recruitment.

The voting Tuesday will be to decide a Democratic nominee, with a runoff between the top-two voter-getters two weeks later unless one of the four receives more than half the votes cast. The winner then challenges two-term incumbent Laurence Leyens on June 2.

In Vicksburg, the mayor has one vote on the city board. It counts the same as the votes of the two aldermen, neither of whom is being challenged for new four-year terms.

Our view, as might be expected, is that it really does matter who serves in each elected office in the community. Very few jobs carry with them so many duties, not the least of which is embodying the tone and spirit of the people.

If you agree, we’ll see you at the polls.