Here's how we make our endorsement picks

As misinformation and disinformation continue to corrode our public discourse, Newsday's editorial board seeks to provide Long Islanders with essential information, context and commentary about the 2024 election. 

Every election season, Newsday's editorial board makes recommendations on ballot proposals that affect your quality of life and endorses those candidates whom we think would be the best public servants to lead or legislate. We seek, through a respectful and fact-based methodology, to support those who can best represent Long Island’s interests. We have undertaken this effort throughout the 84 years of Newsday's existence in the spirit of starting conversations, not ending them. 

How does the editorial board vet candidates and make decisions on whom to endorse?

Newsday maintains a strict divide between its news and opinion journalism operations. The editorial board makes its choices after interviewing the candidates, analyzing their views, and conducting its own research and reporting. Political ideology is not a major factor in our consideration, although we favor moderate views over extreme ones. Endorsement decisions are not based on a candidate’s party affiliation.

Not including the presidential race, by the end of this year's endorsement process, we will have interviewed candidates for all 36 state and federal contests on the Nov. 5 ballot. Starting after Labor Day, meetings have been held or scheduled with major-party candidates for the U.S. Senate and House of Representatives, as well as the New York State Legislature — all of the 64 candidates who are actively running this year.

Candidates’ responses to our questions help guide our decisions but do not determine them. We also consider the candidates’ command of the issues, how effective they are likely to be in office, and whether they are committed to finding bipartisan solutions for the region, state and nation. 

For incumbents, we assess what they have accomplished in office and whether they have followed through on past promises made to voters. For challengers, we look at whatever experience and skills they would bring to the office.

These interview sessions are especially valuable to the board in helping us identify what issues voters are prioritizing and how we can best use our resources to focus on addressing these particular issues.

How does the editorial board work?

Newsday is an independent newspaper. Our endorsement choices are not influenced by our owner or publisher, who are not involved in this process.

The editorial board — which is separate and distinct from Newsday's news operation — is composed of the editors, writers, producers, and cartoonist responsible for the "Editorial and Opinion" section in print and online. All of our editorials, essays, columns, cartoons, and letters to the editor are clearly labeled as commentary. 

This separation of journalistic functions is taken very seriously. Reporters and editors on the news side of Newsday’s operation have nothing to do with endorsements. They are neither present at the candidates’ interviews nor involved in the board’s deliberations. Nor is the board involved in the reporting and writing of the Voters Guide produced by the newsroom.

In the board’s history, there have been numerous instances when Newsday endorsed a candidate it did not support in a previous or subsequent election. Incumbents may have an edge for consideration but incumbency can cut both ways if their record is a dismal one. That’s because we evaluate each race on its merits. There are contests in which both candidates are qualified, and we then choose the better of two good choices, but we never settle for a poor choice.

In a race in which we find no candidate would be a suitable or effective representative for Long Islanders, we make no endorsement. Nor do we provide guidance in a race that is not being contested — in other words, in a race with only one candidate, which gives voters no choice.

We hope our voice offers quiet insight at a time when there is too much shouting and too little meaningful information being given to voters to help them make their choices. In explaining our process, we hope to make it more comprehensible and to give you context and understanding as you read our endorsements in the coming weeks. 

In a broader sense, we are striving to make solid judgments about candidates and issues rather than feed inflammatory slogans. The American discourse, suffused these days with all sorts of overwrought propaganda, needs the kind of factual and uniquely local framework we seek to provide. Without that, democracy can die in broad daylight as well as in darkness.

We hope that our experience and effort earn your trust.