Controversies about political endorsements have been significant news this year, the latest story being the Los Angeles Times opinion editor’s resignation after the newspaper owner prohibited publication of a presidential endorsement.

Earlier in the year, the New York Times announced it would end endorsements in state races. The Washington Post is not endorsing in this year’s presidential race. And Alden Global Capital halted  endorsements in its papers.

One reason offered is that America has become so divided and more distrustful of the media that endorsements don’t matter. I think the opposite is true. In a nation with increasing and flourishing sources of misinformation, trusted voices like ours are more valuable than ever. 

We don’t plan to change our endorsement policy. We endorsed in the presidential race (Kamala Harris) and we’ve endorsed in contested state and local races. 

The presidential endorsement is the one I struggle with. With other races, our endorsements are sources people use to make up their minds. But we don’t delude ourselves about our presidential endorsement impacting votes.

Also, our overarching policy is to write editorials only if we can move a needle. It’s why we don’t opine on international or many national matters. Vladimir Putin is not anxiously awaiting our opinion about pushing the planet to the brink of World War III by bringing North Korean soldiers to his Ukraine invasion. 

If we are not going to impact votes, why publish something that will anger half of our audience?

A few months ago, I polled our Editorial Board on whether to endorse in the presidential race, and the vote was surprisingly close. I cast the deciding vote in favor, even though I personally question the value of it. 

I cast that vote as your representative.

I had asked the subscribers to my daily text messages (more than 2,600 now. Sign up at joinsubtext.com/chrisquinn) whether they wanted us to endorse. Hundreds said we should.

Some just wanted us to support their candidates. But the theme that struck me was about responsibility. The texters told me they we are an important institution, a much-needed independent voice in partisan time. They take pride in their support of us and our principles. To not endorse, they felt, would be a betrayal. Or cowardice. 

That was enough for me. Our duty is to the readers.

We still have occasions when we don’t endorse. We did not in the Issue 1 abortion amendment last November. Abortion is the most divisive issue in the country, one for which people are entrenched. (Well, everyone except Donald Trump and JD Vance, who seem to change their positions with each gust of wind.) Rather than endorse in that issue, we asked our Editorial Board members to write essays on how they felt about the amendment.

Endorsing does cost us something. Several longstanding subscribers wrote to say they were canceling because we endorsed Harris. I feel for them. They’ve obviously gotten something out of subscribing all these years – news, sports and entertainment stories they could not get anywhere else, investigative reporting, comics and more. They’re depriving themselves of that enjoyment to take a principled stand. I salute people who take principled stands. 

In light of the Los Angeles Times owner bigfooting his opinion writers, I want to note that in the 11 years I’ve been editor here, overseeing the Editorial Board, we’ve had no bigfooting. None of our presidents has ordered up and editorial or stopped one. We have four community members on the board, and if anyone usurped the board majority, I suspect they’d leave. We discuss the issues with civility and form positions by consensus. 

Sometimes that puts me on the losing side. We endorsed the arts tax on the Cuyahoga County ballot next month. I was on the losing side. I’d have recommended a no vote. The people behind the tax promised a decade ago to come up with more equitable funding than a cigarette tax, and they failed. I recommended rejecting this one and forcing them to live up to their word. The majority disagreed.

Finally, if you are a conservative getting ready to ask if we ever endorse Republicans, take note. Two years ago, we endorsed incumbent Republicans in the statewide races for governor, auditor, treasurer and attorney general. We did not endorse Frank LaRose in his re-election bid for secretary of state.

Thanks to all who wrote me about me with thoughts on endorsements. We do take your comments to heart, as we did here.

I'm at cquinn@cleveland.com

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