As elections are heating up, so are editorial pages in newspapers across the nation. The Lowell Sun and The Lone Star Iconoclast are under fire for not endorsing their "hometown" presidential candidates. The Sun, based out of Lowell, Mass., made headlines recently for endorsing President Bush, while the Lone Star Iconoclast, of Crawford, Texas, has endorsed Senator John Kerry.
With a population of more than 100,000, Lowell is no small town. It sits 27 miles outside Boston and is home to the University of Massachusetts-Lowell and the Plastic Institute of America. Crawford, however, has 705 residents and, "our favorite son, President George W. Bush," as the Crawford Web site says. The town collects the majority of its revenue from property taxes and water bills, which include President Bush's Prairie Chapel Ranch, said Crawford Mayor Robert Campbell.
Reactions to the endorsements are as different as the towns in which they ran. While the Iconoclast has suffered large subscription and advertisement loss, said the paper's publisher W. Leon Smith, the Sun has lost only one subscription and no advertisements, Lowell Sun Editor Jim Campanini said.
"Apparently, people in Crawford feel fairly passionately about Bush, and of course - he is the sitting president," said Smith.
Smith said there was a circulation of 920 before the editorial ran, but as of Monday, it had dropped to 747.
Smith said he received hundreds of derogatory e-mails from across the nation, while Campanini reported receiving only two oppositional e-mails from out of state. Both newspapers said they expected varied responses from their endorsements, but the reactions against the Iconoclast are unusual, Smith said.
Campanini said, because Massachusetts is a heavily Democratic state, he's gotten a lot of statewide negative feedback. "But out of state, we've been overwhelmed by e-mails from across the country praising us for doing this in Kerry's backyard," he said.
As their biographies show, neither candidate was born or raised in the city in which his "hometown newspaper" runs. According to the Senate Web site, Kerry was born in Aurora, Colo., and resides in Boston. Bush's personal Web site states he was born in New Haven, Conn., and grew up in Houston and Midland. Because Bush's ranch is located near Crawford, the city calls itself his home.
Campanini said Kerry bought a home in Lowell in 1972 to run his first political race for the position of District 5 Congressman.
"He was defeated in that election, largely because the Lowell Sun ran a series of editorials and stories where he was described as a carpetbagger, because he'd been shopping around from California to Massachusetts for the best opportunity to run for Congress," Campanini said.
The Sun has a history of not supporting Kerry, though it generally supports Democratic candidates running for state representatives and has endorsed Republican governors since 1988, Campanini said. The paper did not endorse Kerry in any of his Senate elections.
The Iconoclast, however, endorsed Bush during his first term and changed "based not only on the things that Bush has delivered, but also on the vision of a return to normality that Kerry says our country needs," stated the Sept. 29 endorsement editorial.
ENDORSEMENT RECORDS
The Sun 2004 - George W. Bush (R) 2000 - George W. Bush (R) 1996 - Bob Dole (R) 1992 - George Bush Sr. (R)
The Iconoclast 2004 - John Kerry (D) 2000 - George W. Bush (R) 1996 - No Endorsement 1992 - Bill Clinton (D)
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