I know you're all waiting on the edge of your seats for this shocker:
For Orange County commissioner, the chapter endorsed candidates Mike Nelson and incumbents Alice Gordon and Barry Jacobs. It also expressed support "short of an endorsement" for Fred Battle.
- newsobserver.com | Chapter picks its faves
Issues:
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Comments
And what exactly does
And what exactly does "support short of an endorsement" mean?
I don't have any special
I don't have any special insight, but I read it to mean that they liked all 4 candidates. But they had to pick 3, and they either thought that Fred wasn't as strong on their issues or that the incumbents would win and so it was useful to endorse them. Either way, it is a bit of a cop-out. But it's better than dissing Fred completely, I guess.
The Sierra Club can do three
The Sierra Club can do three things for a candidate- endorse them, not endorse them, or give them the 'support' designation.
Clearly Mike, Alice, and Barry have the most extensive records of environmental activism in the race. But we think Fred would be really good on our issues if he gets elected, he just hasn't spent as much time working on the issues like the trio who got the full endorsements.
I wouldn't call it a 'cop-out.' In the past candidates who are good on the environment but did not receive the endorsement were just hung out to dry and this is the first time in recent memory that we have used the support designation to express our appreciation for a non-endorsed candidate.
I will be voting for Fred on May 2nd.
Thanks for the explanation,
Thanks for the explanation, Tom. And I'll be voting for Fred as well. :-)
A cynic might see it as the
A cynic might see it as the politics of organizational CYA. An optimist might see it as what happens when there is an abundance of worthy candidates.
A realist might see the
A realist might see the results as no big surprise.
I look forward to learning the names of the membership on the endorsement committee. At least three BOCC candidates (so far) have agreed to disclose the names of those who participated in the interviews.