This week's column
About that about-face ...
As you may have noticed, the News & Record reversed one of its primary endorsements this fall, adding Florence Gatten to our choices in the at-large City Council race for the Nov. 8 general election and dropping longtime incumbent Don Vaughan.
E-mailed one reader: "Been hearing rumor that Mr.(presumably Jim) Melvin is grooming Ms. Gatten (wonder what's going on there?) for council/pssibly mayor? Could this be behind your endorsement yesterday?"
Fumed Chewie in an earlier blog comment: "Please don't tell me you base your picks on what Politicians say in Political Forums they're going to do should they retain their Political office. Please. I had no idea you were that easy to bamboozle. I hope that people ignore you completely on this one."
"Who got to you?" e-mailed another.
Um, actually, nobody.
Why then, to paraphrase John Kerry, would we vote against Vaughan after voting for him?
Things simply changed. Campaigns are fluid and candidates reveal more about themselves as races progress.
That's why we continue to follow the candidates in community forums after the primary. And it's why we continue to study their qualifications and their stances on key issues.
In the primary, only a hair's breadth of difference separated Gatten and Vaughan.
Since then, Gatten has surpassed Vaughan, as we see it. Gatten especially impressed us on her commitment to managed growth. She also appeared during her time on the council to be more willing to take unpopular, principled stances than Vaughan, who has a reputation for playing it safe. She is thoroughly versed on the issues and has performed well in recent forums.
We kept waiting for Vaughan to live up to his campaign promise of "proven leadership" by showing at least a semblance of political courage and initiative. We still are.
Vaughan also raised more than a few eyebrows when he addressed Project Homestead questions at two consecutive campaign forums with a jarringly insensitive answer.
Taxpayer money was misspent on the nonprofit homebuilder because the council couldn't predict that Homestead's CEO, the late Rev. Michael King, who ultimately took his own life, "was going to go nuts," Vaughan said at the NAACP forum, then repeated at the League of Women Voters panel.
As for Gatten, we don't agree with her on some issues, among them her stance on the Truth and Reconciliation effort, which she (and Vaughan, by the way) voted to oppose.
The problem we had with her then was not that she was against the effort to revisit the Nov. 3, 1979, killings at Morningside Homes. But that she attacked its integrity based on allegations whose accuracy she admittedly did not confirm.
She has softened her rhetoric recently, saying the Truth and Reconciliation hearings have been more balanced, open and earnest than she expected, but that doesn't fully excuse her earlier words and actions.
That said, this is not a one-issue campaign, and we agree with Gatten on many other issues. In addition, Gatten appears more willing to move forward than stay safe. We respect that, and Greensboro needs more of that kind of leadership.
By the way, we've reversed a primary endorsement before (sort of). When Billy Yow opposed incumbent Phyllis Gibbs in a Republican primary runoff for county commissioner, we sided with neither.
"Try as we might," we wrote back in May 2000, "we cannot in good conscience recommend either candidate in Tuesday's Republican runoff for county commissioner in District 5."
But sufficiently impressed that Yow had become better informed on the issues, we endorsed Yow over Democrat Jim McNally in the general election (guess we'll have to live with that).
Newspapers typically don't change their endorsements often between primaries and general elections, but it does happen.
An endorsement also has been rescinded on at least one occasion. The Wilmington Star-News in 2004 took back its endorsement of Republican state Senate candidate Woody White after White ran a series of what the paper accurately described as "ugly and mindless" ads against his gay opponent, Julia Boseman.
"Mr. White seems to be a decent man," the paper wrote. "These are not decent ads."
By the way, Boseman was elected and serves as the first openly gay member of the General Assembly.
All this to say endorsements are not whimsical, capricious things. We take them seriously, and we work hard to make thoughtful, responsible decisions. Whether you agree or disagree with us, we hope you'll take the chance to make your own judgments this Tuesday.
Less than 5 percent of the eligible city voters turned out for the Oct. 11 primary. We can and should do better.
Someone recently wondered what would happen if they held an election and nobody came.
Let's not force an answer to that question anytime soon.
Contact Editorial Page Editor Allen H. Johnson at ajohnson@news-record.com.
Comments (3)
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I wasn't actually fuming, Allen, or didn't mean to. Nothing about your endorsement made me angry, I just wanted more explanation and insight, and thought you shortchanged yourself by pointing to the forums. Your further explanation made clear that there is a lot more that goes into it.
Posted on November 6, 2005 11:48 PM
good job Allen
Posted on November 7, 2005 7:45 AM
Taxpayer:
Thanks.
Chewie:
Sorry if I misrepresented you. I should have mentioned that the quote was only the beginning of our conversation on the blog.
Posted on November 7, 2005 8:39 AM