The purpose of our endorsements is to provide readers with The Post’s point of view on races and ballot measures that will be decided by Colorado voters. To reach our conclusions, we study the issues and the personalities and sift through the campaign literature.
The Post’s endorsements are determined by our editorial board, an eclectic group that includes the publisher as well as members of our editorial page staff. We’re not a distant or anonymous lot – our names are in the paper every day, along with contact information.
We began the endorsement process shortly after the August primaries and have met with many of the candidates. Over two months, the editorial board has circulated and analyzed more than 100 questionnaires, conducted any number of phone interviews and talked face to face with several dozen candidates or advocates.
When we put together the endorsements, we mean the reasoning to be as useful as the punch line. We certainly don’t fashion ourselves the final word – we know our readers will consider many different sources of information in deciding how to cast their votes.
Our endorsements can be uncomfortable for reporters and editors in the Post newsroom, where objective coverage is the hallmark. It’s crucial that Post readers can rely on the objectivity of the news pages even while weighing the opinions of its editorial board. This mechanics of this separation of “church and state” are simple enough – The Post may endorse a candidate for the state Senate, but the news staff will cover the race in objective fashion, unpolluted by our opinion.
By the end of October, The Post will have published something like 125 endorsements.
These are the “people” races, where policy, character, leadership and problem-solving all enter into the mix, along with the tenor of their campaign efforts. The Post is an independent voice, and you’ll see endorsements for candidates of both political parties. Indeed, our view is that it’s bad enough that party politics play such a poisonous role in Washington, so we hope Colorado officials will operate on a more cooperative basis. That’s among the benchmarks we use in evaluating a candidate. We saw in 2005 and 2006 that government can achieve much for Colorado when Republicans and Democrats work together.
Voters will also take up 14 statewide ballot issues and Denver will offer two key local measures.
All this is a labor of, well, if not love, certainly affection. Politics is often a full-contact sport, and we’ve come to admire the candidates who put themselves forward for the chance to work days, nights and weekends on our behalf.
Jonathan Wolman is editor of The Post’s editorial pages.
