Greensboro News and Record

I called Allen Johnson, editorial page editor at the Greensboro News and Record today. Me being a political newbie, I wasn't aware that there were interviews of candidates to determine who the paper will endorse. Well, I saw the endorsement for my opponent Kay Hagan in the paper today and I called to ask how they arrived at their endorsements. He told me it was their policy to only allocate time and energy for interviews to "the most serious candidates". I asked him how he measured something as arbitrary as "seriousness". By time spent campaigning? If so, having gone door to door campaigning all over town and have gone to every forum and debate I was invited to; surely I must be considered serious. Or perhaps it was funds spent on my campaign? I've spent over $2,000 on radio ads, signs, flyers, etc. Is that not serious? Or is "seriousness" measured by a knowledge of the issues? If so, then clearly I should have been interviewed for endorsement consideration rather than my Republican challenger, who has only a cursory understanding of the political process and the issues we face as NC citizens.

He told me they do not have time to interview all the candidates in local races. They only have time to interview about 80% of them. I asked him if that included interviewing 100% of the Republican and Democrats in local races. A long pause, and then he said "yes."

In the end, he admitted that their policy is not to ignore candidates who are not "serious"; it is to ignore Libertarian candidates. "We made decisions", he kept repeating. I told him that was a disservice to the public to not consider 1/3 of the candidates. He said he understood where I was coming from and that I made some "valid points". He also said that in the future their policy of discriminating agaisnt Libertarians might change. I couldn't tell if he was just telling me that to shut me up or if he really meant it.

But anyway, it felt good to basically make him admit that the paper discriminates against legitimate candidates.

But, like my friend Tom Bailey says, they're not lying about their cheating anymore. They come right out and say "we're cheating". The question is, what are you gonna do about it?

Well, what I'm doing about it is running for NC Senate, and I plan on WINNING. But I can only win with your support. Please, PLEASE, vote Libertarian on Nov. 2nd. The media don't want to upset the status quo, but we the people still have the power to control our government. Let's show them.

-Rusty