That’s what I call the part to an election cycle where we have the debates and the candidate endorsement interviews.
I refer to it as the silly season because, well, to be honest, I just don’t see the value to the hand-wringing that goes on with debates and endorsements, on all sides.
Which isn’t to say that I didn’t put a premium value on debates and endorsements back when I was running for City Council in Waynesboro last year.
And I wasn’t the only one. It got to a point where a hubbub ensued over whether or not the city should use its government-access channel to do a televised debate, with the centerpiece of the debate being the presumed advantage I would have having been a former state-champion high-school debater with extensive background in TV and radio news.
(Those who remember the hubbub also remember that the call was made not to use the city channel for a candidates debate.)
Looking back on it, it was much adieu about nothing. There were still two candidate forums, both of which were lightly attended, and I even received the endorsement of the hometown newspaper, the conservative News Virginian, which certainly shook up the race, for a day or two, anyway.
I know there’s been a bit of gnashing of the teeth the past few days over debate schedules in our local House of Delegates races in the 20th and 25th districts. In the 20th, Republican Dickie Bell has backed off from an earlier pledge to a series of four live candidate forums with Democrat Erik Curren, cutting the schedule of four back to one, and in Highland County, no less. (Yeah, technically, Highland is in the 20th. It’s not exactly the population center of the district.) And over in the 25th, Republican Steve Landes has declined an invite from the News Leader for a joint Leader-TV3 forum with Democrat Greg Marrow, citing issues with the Leader’s editorial approach.
(Which is hogwash. The Leader is what I call the CNN of the Valley. The AFP is MSNBC, catering to progressive readers. The News Virginian and the Daily News-Record are Fox News, with fair and balanced news for residents on the right side of the spectrum. The Leader and CNN play it largely down the middle, which is to say, they offend everybody.)
I’m not sure that in the end any of the campaigns will gain or lose from having missed out on extra opportunities to debate. I can say from experience that the debates that I participated in were seen live almost entirely by people who were attached to one candidate or the other; it’s not at all the case that independent, undecided voters show up to these things and make their mind up on the spot.
Same thing with endorsements. The candidates are all meeting this week with the editorial boards and trying their damndest to impress the ladies and gents on them with their knowledge and insights into public policy, but as a candidate who received an important endorsement and still lost (and lost bad) on Election Day, I guess what I’ll say is it’s nothing if you don’t do anything with it.
My advice to candidates, based on my 0-1 record in elections, is to knock on doors, press the flesh at events, and earn your votes one good impression at a time.
The debate win and the endorsement are akin to the icing on the cake, nothing more.
– Column by Chris Graham
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