It’s a shame what some people will do to be elected or re-elected to public office.

They’ll lie, cheat, steal and attempt to rewrite history in their efforts to gain office or retain an elected seat and feed their egos.

They’ll engage in smear campaigns and align themselves with secret and unethical organizations, not realizing that ultimately they are beholden to the clandestine agendas of those shadowy characters who helped them get elected.

These elected officials — and there are some sitting on boards right here in south county — unquestionably are not watching out for the interests of the public. In fact, it’s painfully obvious they have no desire to speak for the people they supposedly represent.

Fortunately, they’re easy to spot as it’s usually quite clear what special interests control them or whose bidding they’re performing.

But what those elected officials easily forget are the things they said during the election campaign — the false promises, the grandiose statements, the half-truths and the outright lies they uttered during candidate forums.

And let’s not forget the paper trail many of them leave behind in embellished or untrue statements they made in response to candidate questionnaires.

But sometimes the most damning pieces of evidence can be their own campaign literature, extolling their supposed virtues, touting their lofty goals and making promises that they cannot keep.

We’d like to think we’ve done a pretty good job of asking relevant questions in our candidate questionnaires and obtaining and analyzing much of the campaign literature distributed during recent election cycles.

Perhaps, though, we haven’t done as good a job as we would have liked in holding candidates to their word, making sure that they actually deliver on the promises that they have made.

For some candidates, that’s going to be a real problem as there’s not a snowball’s chance that they will be able to come through and accomplish what they said they would do.

Given that, it’s our intent to report to our readers on the progress elected officials are making on the pledges they made to voters, particularly those who attained public office through questionable claims and dubious promises.