Published: October 24, 2009 11:44 pm      

MARREN: Changes to endorsement process

A few weeks ago we gathered as an Editorial Board and cranked out a game plan for our endorsement process. It’s a change from the usual format where we invite the candidates in, one by one, interview them for about an hour or so and decide a few days later who we support in each race.

This year we decided to bring both candidates in at the same time. We looked at it as a mini-debate of sorts, where our Editorial Board served as the moderators and audience.

Having both candidates per race in at the same time has made for an interesting experience so far. We’ve had the Town of Lockport supervisor’s race, two city council races and the Lockport Town Board candidates (well, three of four). All have brought something different.

What this format does, though, is hold them accountable to each other. Where in the past we might interview candidate A on a Monday and candidate B on that Wednesday, candidate B might say something about A after we had already talked to that person. Now we either need to discount what B alleged or go back to candidate A and verify the claim from his opponent. It turns into a big game of “he said, she said.”

Having them all in the room together hasn’t limited the allegations, that’s for sure. No one has been shy. You have the immediate chance for fact-checking with the opposition sitting right there — or just plain rebuttal.

We keep the interviews to about an hour, with both candidates having five minutes or so to introduce themselves and give reasons why they are running. Those who we’ve had in so far seem to appreciate the process, and those who knew the old way seem to prefer the new method. They say it’s fair. That’s our goal.

The endorsement process for newspapers is an interesting one that has been tradition. Some say it should go away since it may show some sort of bias. Not true. When you have a newspaper’s Editorial Board questioning the candidates on both sides of the aisle, you become an extension of the readers, the voting public, that may not have that opportunity. We question those running and decide who we think would represent you best.

So far, so good on the new format. Hopefully, next year we can tweak it a little more and invite the public to attend and make it a forum.

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SIDE NOTE: Bill “The Butcher” Richardson — running in the First Ward — has declined all endorsements and included the US&J as part of that stance. Scott Hughes — running in the Fifth Ward — declined an interview, stating that his soccer coaching duties make it difficult. David Devereaux declined, saying he would be out of town the day we met with the other three Lockport Town Board candidates.

David Leible, who is running for Pendleton supervisor, won’t get my personal endorsement and since he is blowing off the newspaper’s Editorial Board, will not get our overall endorsement either. This guy says he didn’t get our e-mail invite, but I never got a bounced e-mail back that his address was wrong. I called him to follow up, and the man I have never talked to immediately went on the offensive, saying “why should I waste my time if you’re not going to endorse me anyway?” Not knowing where he was coming from, I asked him why. “Well you didn’t endorse me last time ...” Not sure what this guy ran for, but he probably didn’t deserve it then, either, if this is the way he acts. I think it may have been for Town Board. We didn’t even endorse in that race last time. So in the end, he was too cowardly to meet with the newspaper, but did get one thing right after his rant. We’re not going to endorse him. Hopefully, that sequence of events helps voters make their choice as well.

Tim Marren is the managing editor of the Lockport Union-Sun

& Journal. Contact him at Tim.Marren@lockportjournal.com or 439-9222.