Daily Endorsement Tally: Kerry Wraps It Up with Another Strong Day
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By Greg Mitchell
Published: October 31, 2004 1:00 PM ET
NEW YORK Sen. John Kerry wrapped up a surprisingly one-sided victory in the race for 2004 newspaper endorsements with another solid performance on the closing Sunday of the race. Gaining 22 new papers to President Bush's 18, Kerry holds a 208-169 lead in E&P's exclusive tally.
E&P election-year surveys in recent decades concluded by giving an overall edge to the Republican candidate for president, except in one of Bill Clinton's races. In the past, major metros tended to split right down the middle, but Kerry has carried them by about a 5-3 margin this year. This gives him an edge in the circulation of papers backing him of about 20 million to 14 million (our chart below will be updated Monday).
Kerry picked up another major paper today, as expected: The Sun in Baltimore. But Bush gained one of his rare "flip-flops" from the Democrats' column in 2000, securing the New York Daily News. This could help him in New Jersey, if that state's vote is close.
The president also finally gained a good-sized paper in Florida, winning the Jacksonville Times-Union, plus the Albuquerque Journal in another swing state, New Mexico.
As anticipated, Bush also nabbed the Providence (R.I.) Journal and the Tribune-Review in Pittsburgh, but the editorial in the latter underscored what E&P has found (in reading hundreds of editorials) to be a perhaps significant trend: even supporters find much to strongly criticize about the president.
The Tribune-Review, a proudly conservative paper owned by Richard Mellon Scaife, said today, "The presidency of George W. Bush has been a disappointment in many regards." It then cited the war in Iraq, "runaway domestic spending," in which Bush "has been sickeningly accommodating; the ever-porking of taxpayers is an economic, political and moral disgrace."
But the paper was not through, hitting Bush on immigration and the Medicare drug plan, leading to this startling revelation: "All of this sounds like a strong argument against endorsing the president. We considered doing just that." It added: "But then we considered the alternative. Sobriety is a wonderful thing."
Two Michigan papers that endorsed Bush also did so barely. The Kalamazoo Gazette required a tie-breaking vote on the board, and the Ann Arbor News professed disappointment with both candidates.
It got worse for Bush in California, where the North County Times near San Diego withdrew its Bush backing from 2000, opting for neutrality. And in battleground state of Colorado, the Greeley Tribune switched from Bush to Kerry.
This gives Kerry 43 papers that backed Bush in 2004, and at least another 16 from the president's column in 2000 have gone neutral. Bush has now gained seven from the Al Gore column in 2000.
Other additions to our tally for today not mentioned above:
For Kerry: Albany Times-Union and Corning Leader in New York; the Anchorage Daily News and Nome Nugget in Alaska; the Montgoermy (Ala.) Advertiser; Athens (Ohio) News, Springfield (Ore.) News; Huntington Herald Dispatch and Grand Coulee Star in Washington; Greensboro (N.C.) News-Record,Sheboygan (Wi.) Press; Delaware News Journal (New Castle-Wilmington); Vallejo (Ca.) Times Herald; Saginaw (Mi.) News; the Journal Tribune of Biddeford in Maine; the Times-Argus in Barre-Montpelier, Vt.; the Myrtle Beach Sun-News and Anderson Independent-Mail in South Carolina and two papers in New Jersey: the Jersey Journal in Jersey City and the Bridgewater Courier News.
For Bush: The Redding Record Searchlight and Chico Enterprise-Record in California; Glasgow (Ky.) Daily Times; McCook (Neb.) Daily Gazette; The Joplin (Mos.) Globe, The Daily Mining Gazette in Michigan, The Lebanon Daily Record in Missouri, Staunton (Va.) News Leader, the Caspar Star-Tribune and Jackson Hole Star-Tribune in Wyoming, and the Clarion-Ledger in Jackson, Miss.
Thanks again to Erin Olson, Teresa LaLoggia, and others who have sent in editorials.
Here is our chart, state by state, as of Friday (we have not yet updated additions from yeserday or today), including each paper's most recent ABC daily circulation total and an indication of who the paper backed in 2000, Bush or Gore (if we know it). Note: We are not including weeklies or college papers
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