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Patch's Poll: Do Newspaper Political Endorsements Matter?

As print media continue to struggle in the digital news and information age, does the time-honored newspaper political endorsement matter anymore?

 

In these waning days of the election of 2012 there's a time-honored tradition underway right now among newspapers that has gone on for decades, even centuries: The endorsement of candidates.

Today the Hartford Courant endorsed Democrat Elizabeth Esty for the Fifth Congressional District over Republican Andrew Roraback. Yesterday the newspaper endorsed incumbent Second District Democrat Joseph Courtney over Republican challenger Paul Formica, East Lyme's first selectman.

In Connecticut's bitter U.S. Senate battle The Connecticut Post today endorsed Democrat Chris Murphy over Republican Linda McMahon.

While the candidates may crow over such political endorsements, do they hold any weight with voters? In a recent story, NPR cast doubt on that idea and questioned whether newspapers have any clout to sway voters with such endorsements.

How about you? Do newspaper editorial endorsements in political campaigns matter at all to you?

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Just a short thought to get the word out quickly about anything in your neighborhood.
Share something with your neighbors. Write a new post... What's up? Make an announcement, speak your mind, or sell something
Soccer May 20, 2013 at 06:27 pm
g, Let's throw out some more numbers... Here is a site to look at:Read More http://www.sde.ct.gov/sde/lib/sde/PDF/dgm/report1/basiccon.pdf This is the Connecticut State Department of Education Bureau of Grants Management spreadsheet. It shows and compares what Danbury is paying per student compared to the rest of the state. Looking at the numbers, out of the 170+ districts in the state, Danbury pays the 8th LEAST amount per pupil. Out of the 10 districts in Connecticut that have over 10,000 students, Danbury ranks 2nd LOWEST in the state. This amount is about $3,000 less per pupil than the average of the state and the average of districts with 10,000+ students.
g May 20, 2013 at 01:33 pm
Good afternoon Jessica, Danbury plans to spend approximately $114,000,000 on teaching staff salaryRead More and benefits for the next school year per the school budget here - http://www.danbury.k12.ct.us/bbadmin/Budget/2012-2013%20budget.pdf the total budget is $121,000,000. Teachers, administrators, contracted professionals, staff enrichment programs, staff insurance, and the rest comprise about 95% of the school system budget. See staff cost summary on page 8 of the report. You'll also note our board of education plans to spend a bit more than 3 million dollars on supplies and materials plus a million on equipment. The budget represents a 5% increase from the prior year. On our district home page - http://www.danbury.k12.ct.us/ it says Danbury has 10,300 my calculator tells me that's about $12,000 per child in the district. With $12,000 per child, why are teachers paying for supplies? Hmm ... let me think ... 95% of the budget goes to staff salary and benefits for the long 185 day year .... I have a guess where the money goes. Do you?
Black People are ANIMALS May 16, 2013 at 12:18 pm
You should invite all the spics to the lake to go swimming. The Squantzter is usually hungry thisRead More time of year.