Ah Politics
Awoke this morning to learn Margaret Garduño had beaten incumbent Jenny Auger Maw in the Santa Fe Community College Governing Board election
The Santa Fe Reporter was the only paper to endorse her. Both The Journal and The New Mex endorsed Auger Maw.
Endorsements always are a nerve-wracking endeavor, although I think the way we do them at SFR is a little less weird than my understanding of how the other papers do them. For one thing, we don't have a separate editorial or opinion writer... just me. For another, I try to have as much of the editorial staff there as possible for the endorsement interviews, including the interns if they are around. Thirdly, we don't interview the candidates individually, we bring in contestants together so that we can hopefully have a dialogue or, sometimes, even, arguments. It's just that if the goal of endorsing is to compare and contrast the candidates and pick the one who the paper believes most represents the goals of the various offices, it makes sense to actually compare and contrast them at the same time. Finally, we acknowledge the other candidates in our endorsements. We don't just say, here's our pick and here's why. We try to say why we haven't chosen the other candidate. Now, I'm not really taking credit for Garduño's election. In truth, I have no idea how much of an impact our endorsements have. At times, in city elections, I've been left with the impression that people do use our endorsements. I know, during the primary election, several people called wanting to know what to do in some of the more obscure races, and I had people, at the general, tell me they took them in to the booth, particularly to deal with the constitutional amendments. For what it's worth, we take the endorsement process very seriously. And, of course, I'm a 15-year political junkie, so I try my best to be as informed as possible. At the end of the day, though, there are certain races we have so little impact on (state ones, for example) and ones in which there is a candidate with deep roots.
Now, Auger Maw implied, in The Journal, that Garduño's longstanding in the community helped her win. There's probably plenty of truth to that.
The Santa Fe Reporter was the only paper to endorse her. Both The Journal and The New Mex endorsed Auger Maw.
Endorsements always are a nerve-wracking endeavor, although I think the way we do them at SFR is a little less weird than my understanding of how the other papers do them. For one thing, we don't have a separate editorial or opinion writer... just me. For another, I try to have as much of the editorial staff there as possible for the endorsement interviews, including the interns if they are around. Thirdly, we don't interview the candidates individually, we bring in contestants together so that we can hopefully have a dialogue or, sometimes, even, arguments. It's just that if the goal of endorsing is to compare and contrast the candidates and pick the one who the paper believes most represents the goals of the various offices, it makes sense to actually compare and contrast them at the same time. Finally, we acknowledge the other candidates in our endorsements. We don't just say, here's our pick and here's why. We try to say why we haven't chosen the other candidate. Now, I'm not really taking credit for Garduño's election. In truth, I have no idea how much of an impact our endorsements have. At times, in city elections, I've been left with the impression that people do use our endorsements. I know, during the primary election, several people called wanting to know what to do in some of the more obscure races, and I had people, at the general, tell me they took them in to the booth, particularly to deal with the constitutional amendments. For what it's worth, we take the endorsement process very seriously. And, of course, I'm a 15-year political junkie, so I try my best to be as informed as possible. At the end of the day, though, there are certain races we have so little impact on (state ones, for example) and ones in which there is a candidate with deep roots.
Now, Auger Maw implied, in The Journal, that Garduño's longstanding in the community helped her win. There's probably plenty of truth to that.
posted by Julia at 7:59 AM
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