Primary pretense

Anyone looking for an example as to why newspapers should not endorse in primaries should read today’s New Yok Times’ endorsements of Richard Zimmer and Frank Lautenberg for the Republican and Democratic Senate nominations in New Jersey.

The Lautenberg endorsement is the stronger of the two — telegraphing the paper’s likely endorsement of the four-term incumbent in the fall, provided he gets past U.S. Rep. Rob Andrews on Tuesday. He gets significantly more space and a far more glowing review of his accomplishments and goals, most of which dovetail with positions taken by the Times in the recent past.

The Zimmer endorsement, on the other hand, reads like one written to satisfy a requirement. Much less real estate is given to the GOP race (the Senate and a House race share space) and while he is lauded for being in the model of past New Jersey moderates, the Times gives a perfunctory nod to his positions on the Bush tax cuts and a balanced budget, calling it a “goal (that) would be impossible to attain without a quick and drastic curtailment of the Iraq war effort, and while Mr. Zimmer wants to withdraw combat troops, he opposes setting a deadline.” Basically, Zimmer and the Times agree on very little and Zimmer wins this endorsement by default.

As a reader — and an editorial writer — I find the approach disingenuous. As I said, the GOP candidate has little chance of winning the paper’s backing in the fall, so why bother with this excercise? If it is only to preserve some false sense of balance — creating an illusion that the November endorsement is up for grabs — then I’d drop the pretense. Better to not endorse in the primaries than to engage in an intellectually dishonest excercise.

Author: hankkalet

Hank Kalet is a poet and freelance journalist. He is the economic needs reporter for NJ Spotlight, teaches journalism at Rutgers University and writing at Middlesex County College and Brookdale Community College. He writes a semi-monthly column for the Progressive Populist. He is a lifelong fan of the New York Mets and New York Knicks, drinks too much coffee and attends as many Bruce Springsteen concerts as his meager finances will allow. He lives in South Brunswick with his wife Annie. View all posts by hankkalet