This week, the first slate of candidates running in the November election will join us in our conference room for a longstanding tradition: We ask questions, they answer, and sometimes rebut what their opponents say. We record the whole thing for you to watch at your leisure.
Not long after, we share our view on the best candidate in the race.
Our endorsement interview process is not exactly a debate, but with candidates with often-opposing views in the room, it's certainly an exercise in contrast. Our process is geared toward selecting the candidates we believe will serve our community best — but that's just part of it. Going through this early on in the political process, often before a candidate becomes an elected official, allows us to understand who candidates are and what they stand for. It lets us to begin to develop relationships that often extend years into the future. When it comes time to write a news story that involves one of the candidates we met with, those earlier interviews give us a baseline of knowledge. (To be clear, our reporting team takes part in the interview process but does not make endorsement decisions.)
That's why endorsements matter to us, as journalists.
But endorsements should matter to readers, too. As the November election approaches, we meet the fact that we're the only media outlet continuing to do them as a serious disappointment. With the EO Media newspaper dropping that responsibility as of this year, readers no longer have a slate of media outlets with which to compare and contrast endorsement perspectives.
Every schmo on TikTok can offer an opinion about anything under the sun — but most of those are not informed opinions, based on year-round reporting on the issues.
Media plays an integral role in helping people understand elections — who's running, what's at stake, what might be pulsing under the surface and not immediately discernable from campaign literature or the voter's pamphlet.
When this newspaper launched nearly 30 years ago, our mission was to give voice to the underdogs, the rebels, the invisible masses whose voices were drowned out by a majority that appeared unconcerned about anything beyond the status quo. That dynamic has changed as our city has exploded in size, but the mission remains the same.
Every year, we have invested in our community in this way — spending time and resources in the name of seeking the best possible outcomes for this community. It's an informed approach. We tell you what we think about the candidates and measures in an election, based on our year-round interactions with the issues and the electeds who make the decisions that affect everyone's lives. For the busy local with many competing priorities, we think that's a service worth investing in.
It's too bad that the non-local owners of the semi-daily don't agree with that approach any longer. We realize it's easier and often more profitable, when you're not local, to back out of the endorsement process. Perhaps the effects of abdicating this responsibility are less deeply felt across the miles. But for this editorial board, endorsements will remain one of the most important things we do for our community.
