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Do editorial boards hate Norm Coleman? (Update 2)

By David Brauer | 04/17/09

After a bad day yesterday, Norm Coleman picks up tepid support from the Duluth News-Tribune, which says calling off the election contest "would be like calling off a hockey game between periods because your team happens to be ahead."

That brings the "Stay the course" camp up to six daily-paper endorsements, while "Quit Now" remains at seven.

A reader wrote me to express his surprise that "Stay the course" is faring so well. I can't say I'm surprised, for a couple of reasons.

First, there's the pure process piece: As the Duluth paper notes, the Supreme Court is the end of the state journey. I would be surprised if more than a stray editorial board or two supports the loser taking this to the feds.

The other factor is the general lean of editorial boards statewide. As I've written before, metro readers may have had a skewed sense of editorial liberalism back when the Star Tribune was reliably so. But the "old" Strib actually provided balance not just to the Pioneer Press but the rest of the state, where many dailies are in conservative areas.

Compounding geography is the rise of Forum Communications, which now owns eight of the 24 papers listed below. At election time, it makes its candidate endorsements as a bloc, and definitely swings to the right, stray Amy Klobuchar endorsement aside.

However, in this case, Forum papers are all over the map: the Worthington Globe is in the "Quit, now" camp; Duluth is "Stay the course"; Fargo and Grand Forks are wishy-washy, and the other four outlets remain on the sidelines.

At least if this poll can be believed, Minnesota editorial boards aren't quite in sync with the Minnesota public. The Public Policy Polling survey says 63 percent want Coleman to concede; so far, only 53 percent of the boards that have taken a stand agree.

Here's the updated tote board:

Quit now, Norm (7)
♦ St. Cloud Times
♦ Worthington Daily Globe
♦ Albert Lea Tribune
♦ Winona Daily News
♦ Faribault Daily News
♦ Owatonna People's Press
♦ Minnesota Daily

Stay the course for now, Norm (6)
♦ Star Tribune
♦ Pioneer Press
♦ Duluth News-Tribune
♦ Mankato Free Press
♦ Crookston Daily Times (with plenty of snark)
♦ New Ulm Journal

Lamely wishy-washy (2)
♦ Fargo-Moorhead Forum
♦ Grand Forks Herald

Unheard-from or unfound (9)
♦ Rochester Post-Bulletin
♦ Fairmont Sentinel
♦ Marshall Independent
♦ Mesabi Daily News
♦ Bemidji Pioneer
♦ Red Wing Republican-Eagle
♦ Morris Sun-Tribune
♦ West Central Tribune
♦ International Falls Daily Journal

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Comments (3)

Submitted by John Olson on April 17, 2009 - 7:18am.

David, all of the publications you have listed are local or regional papers that are part of a private-sector corporation except one: The Minnesota Daily.

I understand that they serve a community (the University of Minnesota) and are probably larger in terms of circulation than some of the other newspapers listed. However, it is *still* a college newspaper that is written, edited and published by students. Unless things have changed since my days at the U of M, I believe a portion of student service fees goes to subsidize the Daily.

I will confess that I'm not sure about how many other college papers exist in Minnesota, but it seems to me that the Minnesota Daily's sources of revenues and expenses differ significantly from the others.

Submitted by Aaron Landry on April 17, 2009 - 9:51am.

Here's another one for the list:

http://timberjay.com/current.php?article=5265

Submitted by Ryan Flynn on April 21, 2009 - 10:19am.

Looks like the West Centrial Tribune has weighed in - in Norm's favor.

http://www.wctrib.com/event/article/id/50819/