There's always a big question for newspapers to ask at election time – should the paper endorse one or more of the candidates? It's a tough question. Some papers routinely endorse candidates. I've never worked a paper that has endorsed a particular candidate. It's part of what the tag 'politically independent' means on our masthead.
We did talk about it here at the Free Press though. We hadn't seriously thought about it until one of the candidates said the Citizen was going to endorse a mayoral candidate.
There are plusses and minuses to endorsing a candidate. On the plus side, it's a bold move for a newspaper to make. The paper is going out on a limb by doing so, in more ways than one. And, hopefully, an such an endorsement is explained. It has to be more than the candidate is in the same service club as the publisher or spends more money on advertising. An endorsement has to be accompanied by an explanation of why the voters should vote for that person.
The big downside, however, is that the paper is forever tainted by such an endorsement. The perception of impartiality is gone in the paper's coverage of that candidate. The community knows the paper supports that candidate and, as such, coverage and comment can be seen to be biased.
We at the Free Press feel that impartiality and fairness is one of the most important qualities a newspaper can have. We won't be endorsing any candidate in the upcoming municipal election.