Use Statesman Journal endorsements as who NOT to vote for

Hines Brian May 9, 2014No Comments

The LoveSalem blog has a great post today: "The Statesman-Journal's 'Eyes Wide Shut' endorsements."

LoveSalem refers to the recent revelation by our alternative paper, Salem Weekly, that Ward 6 city council candidate Daniel Benjamin lied to the Statesman Journal about his criminal convictions and got the paper's endorsement anyway, even after editors were informed of the untruths Benjamin put on his candidate questionnaire.

(I blogged about this last night.)

Read all of the LoveSalem post. Good writing; sound ideas. Here's some excerpts:

The problem for the Chamber [of Commerce], and then for the Statesman-Journal that does it's bidding, is that their policies are so destructive that it's getting harder and harder for them to find people to act as candidates who can push their line with any credibility.

So, as with the Tea Party all over America, voters wake up after the election to discover that they've elected some pretty creepy people and that the so-called watchdogs of the press are really just lapdogs for the local real estate and tax breaks for sprawl lobby.

The result is that every candidate who got the Statesman-Journal endorsement now has a difficult problem: explaining why voters should not assume that their endorsement is no different from the one the SJ gave to Benjamin, where the SJ wrestled with its integrity and beat it decisively, issuing an endorsement where they could have simply passed.

…If voters all over Salem simply use the SJ endorsement as a "DO NOT SUPPORT" list, Salem would both surprise itself and be a lot better off next year.

Absolutely.

There are excellent alternatives to the Chamber of Commerce/Statesman Journal/Special Interest clone candidates: Tom Andersen and Bradd Swank in Ward 2; Scott Bassett in Ward 4; Xue Lor in Ward 6; Christopher Proudfoot in Ward 8.