With just five days left until ballots are counted, most of the papers in the state that will weigh in on their choice for Democratic Senate nominee have now done so. Steve Novick has now racked up 12 of 15 general circulation papers in the state, and they run the gamut of west, east, south, north, urban, rural, staid, irreverent, conservative, liberal, daily, weekly--you name it. If it's printed in Oregon and reaches a decent number of folks, unless you read the Salem S-J, The Bend Bulletin or the Eugene Reg-Guard you probably read a Novick endorsement.
Any candidate would love to overwhelm his opponent in newspaper endorsements, but this isn't just a run of the mill choice of one guy over another. One man has lots of legislative experience, the other has none (although more than enough policy experience). One man is his state party's leader, the other a faithful Democrat but by no means among the power players. One man has the weight of the national party dumping 400K into the race to help him, as well as the sitting governor, while the other man has his friends, the people he meets and a remarkable band of volunteers.
{Links to all 12 nods, plus a late analysis by WaPo's Chris Cillizza, below}
OK, the highly irreverent Portland Mercury likes Steve Novick. Duh. Ditto Willamette Week, many might say, a rag that serves only to stick a fork in the eye of The O. Speaking of, there's The O itself--the state's established paper of record, featuring an ed board that is nobody's maverick, nobody's bold choice. Throw in the East Oregonian and the Medford Mail Tribune, two papers from redder than red Oregon. Now one starts to wonder what the appeal is--what's THEIR angle?
The liberal island of Ashland makes sense, but what about Hillsboro, Albany or Forest Grove, or the notoriously skeptical Portland Trib? Or how about the McMinnville Register? The hometown paper of notoriously clueless but repeatedly re-elected legislator Donna Nelson is backing the upstart progressive activist? Toss in two more weeklies in Eugene and Bend, add the kids at the Portland State Vanguard, and you've got quite a salad of editors all making the same choice.
Some within the blogosphere have begun to declare newspapers "dead tree" irrelevancies. The first problem with that of course is the internet version of all 12 endorsements, which you see above. But OK, let's grant the newspaper as a dying method of persuasion and influence, a far cry from the days of Hearst.
Yet 12 of 15 editorial boards, in all sorts of towns and cities, reached the same unusual conclusion--give the new guy a chance. That's a pretty broad consensus, a clear choice. And these are likely the most objective reviews of the contest, by people who have seen an awful lot of races come and go.
I'm certainly not one to suggest that they typically have the appropriate pulse of their readership, because usually they are far removed above it. But they didn't go for the established one. They didn't go for status quo. They didn't go for safe. They didn't go for realistic and pragmatic, for experience and laundry listing. They went for something new, something different. When newspaper editors start reaching for something different, there's gotta be a damn good reason for it.
And from a national paper, we get perhaps a little insight on what that reason may be...WaPo's Chris Cillizza weighed in today with his latest Senate line, and he lays out the state of the race in Oregon:
- Oregon: State House Speaker Jeff Merkley has been one of the most disappointing candidates so far this cycle. Recruited into the race by the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee, Merkley has struggled to transition from state legislative politics to a U.S. Senate campaign. Those struggles have been exacerbated by the surprising strength -- fundraising and otherwise -- of party activist Steve Novick. Polling, public and private, suggests Novick could well pull the upset in Tuesday's primary. Democrats insist either candidate will be competitive against Sen. Gordon Smith (R), but that runs counter to the national party's decision to recruit Merkley when Novick was already running. (Previous ranking: 8) [emphs mine]
Owie.
*I included the link to the PSU paper, but since it's a university rag I didn't include it in with the others, which are all general circulation. I also left out special interest papers in the gay or ethnic communities.