Do endorsements matter in elections?

[popstalin]

I was just wondering what their roll is. Is it the "Oh, well the paper I read everyday says they support this guy, so I guess I should too" mentality?

[Demit]

1. pumpernickel? :)

[MidwestMomma]

2. I think they matter some

For the middle Americans who still get their real news from their local paper, I think it might influence them. I think people who get the paper every day and read it think they are smarter than the average person that just their news from TV. And I think that newspaper readers think that newspaper reporters and writers are smarter than the people reporting on the TV. So if their newspaper endorses a candidate, I think it makes some people stop and think, "Hey, they know what they are talking about"

Just my humble opinion.....

[Killarney]

3. I think it can matter to some people if they truly trust the paper.

Especially people who don't follow politics on a day to day basis and ESPECIALLY in local and state elections.

[clydefrand]

4. Just thinking the same thing

And I also want to know if bumper stickers and yard signs really sway anyone to vote for or against a candidate, or for that matter if polls change people's minds.

[Eric J in MN]

6. My hope with yard signs is that they remind supporters of

that candidate to make sure they're registered and know where they're polling place is.

[fugue]

7. I think what bumper stickers and signs do

is persuade people they aren't alone. If you don't see support for your guy anywhere, you might stay at home because you figure it's not gonna do any good to vote for him.

[Fluffdaddy]

5. Not one bit. Has a newspaper endorsement ever mattered in your vote ?

Never has for me. Not the Top guy in the world.......Maybe for a judge but that's about it

[Catt03]

8. Yes..it has mine

Particularly if the paper is trusted. I always follow mine for propositions and offices where I know little about county candidates. There are times that the ballot is pretty long.

[demokatgurrl]

9. I admit it has, only by papers I trusted, well written endorsments -

and for lower-ballot slots where I might not have paid a lot of attention to the details.

[DemFromMem]

10. Might help the leaners

If someone is undecided, but leaning to one candidate or the other, an endorsement might give some validation to the decision to follow their hunch.

[drumwolf]

11. my speculation

is that newspaper endorsements DO affect the opinions of the moderate undecided swing voters -- the very people who determine the outcome of the election.

[NewYorkerfromMass]

12. They will in this one. It's great for fencesitters who need a nudge.

People are looking for a nudge towards Kerry. These could tip the election decisively in a campaign filled with doubters of Kerry who need him to have legitimacy.

[Cocoa]

13. yes, they do

most people are not certain about what they think. They have an idea of what they believe, and things like endorsements can confirm that or can weaken it.

Not just newspapers, but other types of figures. I think Michael J. Fox, Nancy Reagan and Christopher Reeve are absolutely decisive on stem-cell research. Most people don't really understand this issue, and these people have enormous credibility.

[trogdor]

14. If a bunch of mainstream papers started endorsing Bush...

...we'd all be having fits.

The naive version is, the Fourth Estate is turning away from the Chimp for the sake of the country.

The cynical version is, they've got all the entertainment value they could get out of his stupid ass, they think Kerry will probably win, and they want to suck up to the new guy.

The Bill Maher version backs up the cynical version. Maher gave a seriously backhanded endorsement to Bush on Real Time this week (New Rules - Let Bush Win), claiming (among other things) that his job will be much harder with Kerry in the White House. If you haven't caught Real Time, you ought to. This was clearly the highlight of the show.

[Cocoa]

16. that's why I don't like Maher

to me, he represents the most damaging form of cynicism.

[noamnety]

15. I used them this year

I know the major candidates, but on my absentee ballot, the judges were listed as nonpartisan. I found an article in the Detroit Free Press that didn't exactly endorse them, but it listed who was a democratic and who was a republican. You bet I used that.

And then I found a pipe fitters union with an online list of endorsements, they were clearly aligned with me on the names I knew, so I marked in the ones I didn't know from their site. (Things like the board of trustees for a community college, sheesh, I don't know those candidates.)