With Labor Day now in the rearview mirror, voters will likely start paying closer attention to campaigns for elected office.

In terms of local contests, the main attractions on this year's ballot will be the races for state Legislature seats. In Cayuga County, four of the five incumbent legislators are facing challenges.

While it would be nice to see every state seat contested, having just one (state Assemblyman Robert Oaks has no challenger this year) uncontested race is an improvement over two years ago, when three seats had no races.

We cheer for contested elections not because we automatically oppose incumbents, but because spirited campaigns bring needed focus to local issues.

This year, when it comes to the men and women seeking to represent Cayuga County residents in Albany, the top issue must be the local economy.

Each week seems to be bringing some new dose of bad economic news. Fingerlakes Mall is about to lose a major retailer (Steve & Barry's), TRW Automotive just announced a second wave of layoffs this summer, the nearby Honeywell plant in Skaneateles Falls is moving production to China.

These announcements just get reinforced every month when the state Department of Labor comes out with its job market data. Cayuga County's unemployment rate has been up year-over-year for each month of 2008.

Candidates must talk frankly this fall about what they will do to help deal with this pain.

We don't expect anyone to have a solution that will immediately turn things around (and we'd be highly skeptical of anyone who claims to have this), but we also don't want to hear candidates claim they are powerless against the forces of the economy.

Albany can make some changes that, at the very least, will make this state and this region more competitive. It's up to the candidates to explain with specificity, what changes they would like to make.