Arizona Daily Star Editorial board issued their campaign endorsements, as early ballots go out this week. These endorsements are in today’s print edition, pages A 8 and 9.
U.S. Senate: Senator John McCain (R)
http://tucson.com/news/opinion/editorial/star-endorsement-us-senate/article_c04e7a68-0347-5334-a76e-89b5890b38c0.html
Congressional District 1 (open seat): Tom O’Halleran (D)
http://tucson.com/news/opinion/editorial/star-endorsement-congressional-district/article_80d50b9b-d0c2-5b32-9854-b29593b0c25e.html
Congressional District 2: Congresswoman Martha McSally (R)
http://tucson.com/news/opinion/editorial/star-endorsement-congressional-district/article_60081308-5e82-5bcf-bbc5-a18db8327502.html
Legislative District 2: Senator Andrea Dalessandro (D), Rep. Rosanna Gabaldon (D) , Rep. Chris Ackerley (R)
http://tucson.com/news/opinion/editorial/star-endorsement-arizona-legislative-district/article_16963b81-8b4f-5c7d-a5a5-244ee9791064.html
Legislative District 9: Senator Steve Farley (D), Rep. Randy Friese (D), Pam Powers Hannley (D) for House
http://tucson.com/news/opinion/editorial/star-endorsement-arizona-legislative-district/article_4df2b7fc-a810-5878-b947-8f23ea421ac3.html
Legislative Distsrict 10: Senator David Bradley (D), Rep. Stefanie Mach (D), Kirsten Engel (D) for House
http://tucson.com/news/opinion/editorial/star-endorsements-arizona-legislative-district/article_7f0c0495-62ee-5041-a37f-94de2c3f0f07.html
Legislative District 11: Ralph Atchue (D) for Senate, Corin Hammond (D) for House
http://tucson.com/news/opinion/editorial/star-endorsements-arizona-legislative-district/article_1f805c0b-bfb2-5e55-b7ad-efe6480d8f37.html
Pima County Supervisor District 1: Brian Bickel (D) and
Pima County Supervisor District 3: Sharon Bronson (D), incumbent
http://tucson.com/news/opinion/editorial/star-endorsements-pima-county-board-of-supervisors/article_916660fb-e9ef-5a4d-b6d7-544ef2d85321.html
Pima County Sheriff: Mark Napier (R)
http://tucson.com/news/opinion/editorial/star-endorsement-pima-county-sheriff/article_ea7862dd-6caa-5e95-98f7-fd765cb3c1ea.html
Not sure why the Star failed to endorse in other races (LD 3 House, Pima County Attorney, School Superintendent, Supervisors District 4 & 5, which are contested). The Star did endorse CD 3 Congressman Raul Grijalva (D), running unopposed.
Vote wisely on or before Nov. 8, 2016.
grijvala isn’t running unopposed. I Harvey Martin am running against him Carolyn Glassmen.
Are you a write in candidate? What is your party affiliation? Who is Carolyn Glassmen whom you refer to?
I found a site listing you as a write-in candidate and a Democrat: https://ballotpedia.org/Harvey_Martin
The Arizona Daily Star has had a conservative tilt for years. They hardly ever write original editorials, instead they use a stable of op-ed writers from other sources. The conservatives tend to be folks like Jonah Goldberg, Charles Krauthammer, George Will and other Republican partisans. On the other side, they tend to go with fairly non partisan writers like Ruth Marcus, Leonard Pitts, and Catherine Rampell. And the Star publishes more right leaning op-eds overall than moderate ones. Their inhouse opinion writer, Tim Steller, is a moderate, with right leaning tendencies.
The only semblance of liberal/left focus in the Star is cartoonist David Fitzsimmons. He was probably outvoted on all the Republican endorsements by the other members of the editorial board.
Thanks Jim for your assessment of the editorial board of the Az Daily Star. Columnist Tim Steller told me he is a registered Independent. The Star did endorse mostly Democrats, except for 4: U. S. Senator John McCain, Congresswoman McSally, LD 3 Rep. Chris Ackerley, and Sheriff candidate Mark Napier.
I don’t think Tim Steller is on the editorial board. On the Star’s website, besides Fitz, the other person listed is Sarah Garrecht Gassen. She very occasionally writes a column on the editorial page, but usually not partisan in nature. Another Star staffer, Maria Parham, was the editorial page editor, but she recently retired.
The endorsement panel might have included some folks like the publisher, etc.
In terms of their Republican endorsements, it seems like McCain and McSally are kind of big deals. McSally was a Koch candidate, some estimate that the two brothers spent $5 million in 2014 to get her elected. McCain has proved to be the opposite of a maverick, toeing the Tea Party line most of the time. Ann Kirkpatrick is a moderate Democrat.
“Not sure why the Star failed to endorse in other races (LD 3 House, Pima County Attorney, School Superintendent, Supervisors District 4 & 5, which are contested).”
I’m not convinced any staff of the Star even know that the LD3 House race is contested. I have thus far received no requests for an interview with their editorial staff, and while the Star ran reports on the LD9 and 10 races a couple of weeks back, there has been no such article run on this race. I suspect they are taking the traditional dismissive attitude toward races with Green candidates challenging R/D candidates in otherwise uncontested races.
The Recorder (D vs. G) and Assessor (D vs. I) races similarly are not listed in this article, which would lend credence to the suggestion that the Star is uninterested in races outside of the typical D v. R dichotomy.
Right Edward, the Pima County Recorder and Assessor’s races aren’t listed either. I’m wondering if the Star might endorse in these races later this week.
The print edition of the Star (page A8) states that the LD 3 House race is uncontested, which is incorrect as you Edward are a candidate in that race. They obviously do not watch the AZ Citizens Clean Elections debates:
https://blogforarizona.net/watch-az-citizens-clean-election-debates-online-ld-3-and-ld-11-races/
The Green Party of Pima County put out a media advisory with respect to this past Monday’s debate which did go to several reporters on the Star’s staff, so they don’t have the excuse of ignorance for stating the race is uncontested. I’m not suggesting that I’m somehow entitled to an endorsement (and Ms. Gonzales and Dr. Saldate are not candidates I disapprove of in any case – I’m just fed up with the political system in Arizona as a whole), but I do think the Star is doing their readers a disservice by not at least mentioning that there is a contest in the race.
I do appreciate your at least making mention that the race does exist, Ms. Classen.
You’re welcome. I have been covering the Green Party candidates (including Dave Croteau for Pima County Sheriff, Mary DeCamp for Ward 3 Council and Mayor), Jill Stein and Kent Mesplay for U.S. President — for years. And posting Green Party membership meetings on our image Calendar.
John McCain and Ackerly, seriously? I thought for a moment I was reading it in the AZ Republic! GIVE US A BREAK!
The Star also endorsed another Republican, challenger Mark Napier over incumbent Pima County Sheriff Chris Nanos, a Democrat. And they also endorsed Congresswoman Martha McSally (R).
Given the scandals Nanos has found himself in, I’m not surprised that even generally liberal/left-wing outlets would be skeptical of endorsing him. McSally is probably the most puzzling one to me of the four if the Star’s editorial board is interested in propping up candidates with a left-leaning bias (by the standards of the US political system).
Even the Tucson Weekly endorsed Napier over Sheriff Nanos this morning: https://blogforarizona.net/tucson-weeklys-endorsements-for-general-election-2016/