As New Hampshire inches closer to the Sept. 14 primary, the number of endorsements of the political candidates is piling up.
There are the political endorsements -- one politician endorsing another, or a political action group endorsing a candidate.
Recently in this regard, for example, Sarah Palin made a splash when the former Alaska governor and vice president candidate endorsed Republican U.S. Senate candidate Kelly Ayotte. The National Rifle Association recently endorsed Republican Charlie Bass' bid to become the next congressman from the 2nd District.
Then there are the newspaper endorsements -- the nods from long-standing Granite State institutions that hold to journalistic tenets of being unbiased in their assessment and reporting of people and events.
These are most interesting because they are made without a political agenda behind them; they're made as a way to inform voters.
What is most significant in this year's mid-term election is the fact that the Fourth Estate is collectively turning up its nose to both Ayotte and Bill Binnie -- the frontrunners in the GOP campaign to succeed retiring Sen. Judd Gregg.
Their campaign behavior -- particularly the level of ferocity of their television attack ads -- has troubled a lot of people, including their party boss, John H. Sununu who basically told them twice to back off the damaging rhetoric.
Their behavior has also convinced the editorial boards of the state's major newspapers to consider anybody but Ayotte and Binnie.
The state's largest paper -- the Union Leader out of Manchester -- endorsed Ovide Lamontange in the Republican primary for the U.S. Senate.
"He is not the flashiest candidate. He certainly is not the richest. He isn't the favorite of the bigtime professional pols or the Washington crowd," said the Union Leader endorsement. "Ovide is just a smart-as-a-whip, honest, hard-working son of New Hampshire who says what he believes."
Earlier, the Union Leader called Binnie "a bully with a bag of money."
Foster's Daily Democrat, meanwhile, endorsed Jim Bender in the Republican primary for the U.S. Senate.
"Foster's is impressed with his business acumen and success; he's obviously very intelligent; and we believe he will keep his promise to stay above the partisan fray of Washington politics," it said in its editorial.
It had earlier scolded Binnie for negative ads, and recognized in its latest editorial that Binnie had softened his tone.
Yet the paper notes the damage was done:
"Unfortunately, Kelley Ayotte continues her scorched-earth, highly negative campaigning. Her efforts can only hurt the party in the general election," it said.
Newspapers don't intend to tell voters what to do with these endorsements. Rather, they are meant to educate. And the educated judgment of two of the states biggest papers don't include Ayotte and Binnie.
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