Election 2008: What’s At Stake?

New Mexico’s largest newspaper the Albuquerque Journal became one of the last papers to endorse a presidential candidate this year, announcing its support for Republican Sen. John McCain on Sunday placing it among the minority of newspaper endorsements nationwide, according to Editor & Publisher. As of today, 273 papers have endorsed Sen. Barack Obama and 142 have endorsed McCain. Obama is ahead in endorsements 14-to-8 among Battle for the West papers.

Former Journal reporter and editorial writer Denise Tessier wrote in the New Mexico Independent that the Journal’s endorsement appears to cling to the “classic idea of the unsigned editorial.” Unlike many modern endorsements that weigh the pros and cons of each candidate or offer a peak inside the sausage factory by exposing internal debate among editorial board members, the Journal’s endorsement “props up the one being endorsed while rarely acknowledging any weaknesses” and “implies consensus of the board” that Tessier doubts existed.

David Alire Garcia, also a former Journal editorial writer, agrees with Tessier’s assessment.

“When I opened the Sunday Journal and learned that the state’s paper of record had endorsed McCain, I immediately knew the endorsement wasn’t the product of a reasoned consensus involving the members of the Journal’s current editorial board,” he wrote for the New Mexico Independent. “Instead, the Journal’s McCain endorsement is the dictate of one man.”

That man is Journal publisher T. H. Lang, and both Tessier and Garcia tell similar tales of his involvement in the 2004 endorsement. Tessier remembers the path to supporting Bush for reelection:

I thought declining to endorse a possible option for the Journal, and suggested it as our position. After I laid out the negatives of the Bush administration and positives about Kerry’s record in the Senate, the discussions circled the table — and all comments about Bush fit the negative column until we came back around the circle to [editor Kent] Walz. In light of our remarks, Walz said he would take two suggestions to the publisher: Go with Kerry or don’t endorse.

Garcia recalls the vote among board members being 4-to-1 in favor of endorsing Kerry, but ultimately “it was the publisher’s personal view reflected in the Sunday Journal four years ago.”

Many readers assume editorials — the voice of the paper — represent some sort of democratic consensus of staffers a la Slate’s listing of which candidate its staffers are backing. Readers who know about and understand the firewall often separating an editorial board from its reporting staff might similarly assume that the endorsement at least represents consensus of that board.

“It’s this kind of confusion that plays right into the hands of the Journal’s top brass, and elevates the importance of the endorsement in the eyes of readers and ultimately voters,” Garcia said.

In the last 6 months, the state has turned from toss-up to strongly favoring the Democratic nominee, and Obama enjoys an 8.5 point lead in the state heading into the election Tuesday.