Why we won't endorse candidates

E

ven though this online newspaper now reaches 194,000 individual readers each month, we are not going to endorse any candidates in Tuesday's primary election.
 
The reasons are these;
As lifelong newspaper readers ourselves, we always disliked it when our hometown newspaper told us for whom to vote. As subscribers and readers, we simply didn't like it. We assume the practice started two generations ago when newspapers were the ONLY communications medium in existence.
 
In the 1930's before radio was invented, newspapers got 94 percent of all the advertising money spent in America. Today that "market share" is down to under 15 percent, and most people under 30 don't read a daily newspaper, but old habits die hard.
From top; Patrick, Silbert, Murray, Bergstrom and Turner.
 
There is a way to endorse
Many media outlets have adopted a less arrogant practice; they sort of tell the readers or listener why the editors or editorial board are voting for particular candidates. We even object to that unless the editor(s) sign their own names.
 
After all, we doubt that many of the Cape Cod daily's reporters are all that crazy about Tom Reilly, even though he has "fallen on his sword" for the party elder statesman by being the only Democratic gubernatorial candidate to be against Cape Wind.
 
The Boston Globe, Worcester Telegraph, Boston Phoenix and just today the Berkshire Eagle have mentioned their support of Cape Wind as one of the reasons they support Deval Patrick. He has also been endorced by Brookline TAB, Cambridge Chronicle, Hamilton-Wenham Chronicle, Ipswich Chronicle, Marblehead Reporter, Medford Transcript, Needham Times, Roslindale/West Roxbury Transcript, Somerville Journal, Worcester Magazine, Wakefield Observer and Wellesley Townsman as well as from five members of the Massachusetts Congressional Delegation (Capuano, Frank, McGovern, Olver, Tierney) more than 60 state and local officials, more than 20 labor unions, numerous statewide and national groups, as well as The Boston Globe, The Bay State-Boston Banner, the Attleboro Sun Chronicle, the Boston Phoenix, and the MetroWest Daily News.

Tom Reilly has been endorsed by Cape Cod Times, Springfield Republican and Boson Herald as well as the Democratic pols controlled by Ted Kennedy.
 
Who we will vote for Tuesday and why
Our editorial board is made up of a registered Independent, a Democrat and a Republican, and so we can vote in both primaries On Tuesday we will vote as follows;

• Governor; Deval Patrick because he has inspired us like no other candidate since Jack Kennedy, and one of us is old enough to have voted for JFK in 1960.
• Lt. Governor; Andrea Silbert or Tim Murray because she's from Cape Cod and supports the wind farm , and he was the only one smart enough not to take a position on Cape Wind, because no matter who the eventual gubernatorial nominee is, the Lt. Gov will have to take the Gov's position. The Lite Governor's office is as FDR's first VP  John Nance Garner said about his office, "the vice-presidency isn't worth a pitcher of warm spit."
• US Senator; We'll blank this slot because we never cast a vote for any office without a contest.  Two of us may write-in Jim Gordon's name.
• US Representative; See above, except we might write-in CPN's Barbara Hill.
• State Senate; See above. We almost hope Jim doesn't win because he should be too busy building the wind farm in a couple years.
• State Rep, 4th Barnstable District; Ron Bergstrom because Matt Patrick knows him and says he's kewl. He also hasn't removed any non-PC paintings from the Chatham Selectman's office to my knowledge.
• State Rep. 3rd Barnstable District; doesn't have a race either, but one of us will break with tradition and cast a vote for Cleon Turner anyway, because he had the guts to endorse Deval Patrick before it was popular to do so.

Poll shows a different line-up in the 4th Barnstable
Patrick now 21% ahead of others in new CBS4 poll

That's about it. We almost want to vote in the GOP primary so we could thank Andy Buckley for conducting himself as such a complete gentleman in his blog here despite being attacked anonymously by opponents and unfairly by his daughter's mother. The capecodtoday poll on our front page doesn't agree with us with Sarah Peake winning the Democratic bid and Ray Gottwald coming in second, but if our readers are correct she will face Andy Buckley.

As we wrote in an editorial on Sunday, a new Statehouse poll showed Patrick leading by 10 percent and a new CBS4 poll showed his lead over Reilly to have lengthened to 21 percent. Please vote on Tuesday, Sept. 19 -- and watch for winners begin endorsing Cape Wind.
 
Walter Brooks, Jack Coleman and Spyro Mitrokostas, editorial board