Endorsements fuel campaigns

As municipal campaigns inch closer to Election Day, some candidates are finding friends with benefits - political groups eager to endorse candidates for office.

The first endorsements of the campaign trail are already in: Campus-based Students for a Progressive Chapel Hill announced last week they are throwing their weight behind Jason Baker, Will Raymond, Laurin Easthom and incumbents Mark Kleinschmidt and Mayor Kevin Foy for Chapel Hill seats.

And the N.C. Police Benevolent Association also handed out endorsements to Kleinschmidt and former council member Bill Thorpe.

Kleinschmidt, who rode several endorsements into his first council term in 2001, said such support carries a major weight in towns with intense political debate.

"(Endorsements) reinforce the quality of the Town Council and express confidence in candidates to the community," he said.

For council members Bill Strom, Sally Greene, Cam Hill and Jim Ward - all winners in the 2003 elections - endorsements might have been key.

Strom and Greene both garnered nine endorsements, while Ward netted five and Hill received four.

No unsuccessful candidate had more than three major endorsements.

Katrina Ryan, a Carrboro Board of Aldermen hopeful, said endorsements can have a big impact among less politically active residents.

"Endorsements, for the uneducated voter, tend to work pretty good," she said. "The community at large can't always keep up with everything."

Ryan said that in Carrboro, the endorsements of the Independent Weekly and the Sierra Club - which saw all their selections succeed in 2003 - will pack the most punch on Election Day.

"A lot of people in Carrboro have the Indy in their hand," she said. "Those groups are two big players (here)."

Endorsed candidates will benefit from group affiliates eager to canvass the area in hopes of picking up more votes as well as name recognition.

"It can be very effective to have people campaigning for you," Kleinschmidt said. "I could start today and not stop until Election Day and still not talk to every voter."

But the value an endorsement carries must also be weighed with tangible advertisements - signs and brochures.

"To some, endorsements are invisible - but you have to work for them. You have to have a track record," Raymond, a member of Chapel Hill's Technology Board, said.

Though candidates go after as many endorsements as possible, Kleinschmidt said shifting principles to appease a group can kill a campaign's credibility.

"It's tempting for novice politicians to do that," he said. "(But) I hope, for their sake and for the sake of Chapel Hill, they don't do that."

The student body vote, viewed by some candidates as a sleeping giant, could take a cue from University-based activist groups such as SPCH, led by former Student Body President candidate Tom Jensen.

"I think the key thing (behind the SPCH endorsement) is that it provides candidates with volunteers," Jensen said. "You really need a big force out knocking on doors."

Two years ago the group backed the successful campaigns of both Strom and Greene.

But do student groups' endorsements have clout?

"People say, 'That candidate must be really good to draw the attention of students,'" Jensen said.

Kleinschmidt said the group, as an early major endorsement, sets the bar for many other groups.

"Although they look at things through a student's lens, they have a broad appeal," he said.

 

Contact the City Editor at citydesk@unc.edu.