Post and Courier Editor Barbara S. Williams is only half joking when she tells people endorsing political candidates is a lose-lose proposition: “The candidates we endorse who win are sure they would have won anyway. Those we don’t endorse are sure we are the cause of their defeat.”
The endorsement process is a long, time-consuming one for the Post and Courier editorial staff. Before decisions are made, every candidate is invited in for an interview. This fall, 59 candidates came in and met with staff members from 30 minutes to an hour each. In the end there is no way to measure how effective the endorsements have been.
For those and other reasons, some newspapers don’t endorse candidates for election. The Post and Courier does, as does every other South Carolina daily. “It is our obligation. All year, we take stands on issues, and if we do not take a stand on people we feel can best implement those ideas, we have taken a pass on the most important decisions,” Williams said.
The editorial staff, with its access to candidates and information, is better able than most people to sift through mountains of campaign rhetoric, slogans and controversy and to feel comfortable making an informed decision about which candidates would be the best.
Beginning in late September, members of the editorial staff began meeting with candidates for races they considered of most interest to people in the Lowcountry. They identified issues they felt most important for each race and questioned the candidates accordingly. In addition to Williams, staffers involved were Charles Rowe, Bob Cox and Frank Wooten.
The interviews are very important in the decision-making process. It is the editorial staff’s opportunity to hear from candidates without distractions. And it is an opportunity to hear from candidates in lower-profile races who don’t often have a bully pulpit to get their messages across.
Williams said the candidates they know best are not always the ones they endorse. There have been numerous times, she said, when a candidate they had never met before made the best impression and won the endorsement.
The decisions, however, are not based on interviews alone. The editorial staff researches what has been written by and about candidates, and they talk with people who know the candidates.
This year, Williams said, the editorial staff was in agreement on nearly every choice. The group is, for the most part, fairly like-minded on political issues.
But when there is dissension among the group, they gather more information and talk about it until the differences are resolved. Williams said she can remember only once when The Post and Courier decided not to endorse in a major race. In 1992 the decision-makers had reservations about all the presidential candidates. The paper ran an editorial explaining why it would not endorse any.
The reporting staff and news editors are not part of the endorsement process. They do not participate in the interviews, and they do not, as a rule, even know whom the paper will endorse until the editorial has been written.
The decisions, Williams said, are not made along party lines:
This year, the newspaper endorsed a Republican for governor and a Republican for U.S. Senate and comptroller general.
But it endorsed Democrats for lieutenant governor, attorney general, superintendent of education, treasurer, commissioner of agriculture and secretary of state.
It endorsed a Democrat and a Republican for the U.S. House. It endorsed two Democrats and two Republicans for the state House of Representatives; and three Republicans and two Democrats for Charleston County Council.
Williams said The Post and Courier editorial staff also aims to explain to readers why they might want to consider voting for a person or a referendum rather than suggesting why they might consider voting against the opponent.
It is more than a list of names. The endorsements are intended to present thoughtful research into races and candidates.
It stands to reason that Williams would like to see each of The Post and Courier’s endorsed candidates win. She and her staff believe those candidates would serve the voters best. The purpose of endorsements, however, is not to instruct people how to vote but to offer their informed decisions as information to readers. Poll workers report that some voters took the editorial page or the newsroom-produced voters guide with them into the voting booth. But in the end, it is impossible to know what caused the vote to turn out the way it did.
Williams said it is possible that the newspaper’s endorsement of a half-percent sales tax by Charleston County helped it squeak past vocal opposition and played a role in a tight council race.
In the past, The Post and Courier’s endorsements for the nonpartisan Charleston County School Board seats have seemed to make a difference in the vote. This race was different from previous ones in that several groups aggressively supported slates. None of the endorsed candidates won.
