I was chatting with a long-time local politico over the weekend, bitching about the P-I endorsement of Reichert, and the old-timer sarcastically responded “Big deal.” Both the Times and P-I endorsements were “soft,” and besides, newspapers “almost always endorse the incumbent.”
Huh. It wasn’t the first time I’d heard that little gem of conventional wisdom, and anecdotally it appeared to be true, but I thought I’d start compiling a spreadsheet of newspaper endorsements this season to see how strongly that trend holds up. So far I’ve compiled results from the Times, the P-I and the Olympian, for all non-open, statewide, congressional, and legislative endorsements… and so far the incumbents are leading by a margin of 41 to 1, the lone exception being the P-I’s endorsement of Democratic challenger Peter Goldmark in the race for Commissioner of Public Lands.
I plan on adding at least the Everett Herald, the Tacoma News Tribune, the Columbian, and the Spokane Spokesman-Review to my spreadsheet, and no doubt the percentages will narrow some when the Times and other conservative ed boards inevitably endorse Dino Rossi, but I’d say the results thus far are statistically significant.
And there are folks in our local media who accuse me of lacking sufficient independence.
Darn it Goldy – why can’t you just mindlessly endorse the incumbent too. That way we can just go in the voting booth and not THINK! Of course in Washington state, the incumbents are democrats 80% of the time.
I love how Reichert is portraying himself as a moderate. His chickensh-t votes on a bunch of issues show that he switches to the moderate side only after he votes with the republicans on the crucial amendments and they don’t need him anymore.
To my mind, that makes him even more dishonest. Deliberately voting both sides of an issue to support his party but appear more “moderate”. He doesn’t even have the courage to vote his convictions. What a piece of work!
So what does Darcy have to do, walk on water? Why isn’t hugging a rabbit enough?
Hey DG-
The Everett Herald endorsed Peter Goldmark the other day.
It’d be interesting to see those numbers juxtaposed with the rates at which the voting public reelects incumbents.
@4 I would slightly rephrase that, thusly: “It’ll be interesting to see those numbers juxtaposed with the rates at which the voting public reelects Republican incumbents.”
You seem to forget that in the 2006 congressinal elections not a single Democratic incumbent lost. Can’t say the same for the Repugs …
The Yakima Herald endorsed Goldmark.
…we don’t feel DNR played the aggressive leadership role that was needed in Lewis County to strike a balance between the historical excesses of property rights when squared off against necessary environmental concerns and the greater public good in that area.
Which incumbents would you have us reject? Jay Inslee? Jim McDermott? Adam Smith? Norm Dicks? Mike Kreidler?