On Tuesday the St. Petersburg Times rescinded its recommendation of Jim Norman as the Republican state Senate candidate in District 12.
The paper received its share of criticism for coming out in support of Norman last week, just a day before a Leon County Circuit Judge disqualified him from the ballot for failing to report a half a million "gift" from former Hillsborough GOP power broker Ralph Hughes.
One such note on the Times website came from someone called JSSR, who wrote in the comments section on Tuesday:
Ummmmm….Dear St. Pete Times, guess what? You didn't have to endorse anyone. Why you felt compelled to endorse Norman, in spite of his glaring unethical (and possibly illegal) misconduct is a mistery to me. I appreciate the fact that you are withdrawing your endorsement (hard to endorse someone who has been removed from the ballot) but your explanantion for the original endorsement is lame. He was the only viable choice? Is that your standard? How can you expect us to take you seriously in the future?
On Tuesday, CL caught up with Tim Nickens, the Times Editor of Editorials, to tell us, as Jay Leno once famously asked Hugh Grant, What the hell were you thinking?
Nickens explained that the paper has a long history of recommending (not endorsing) candidates for every election. "It's not an embrace for the entire person's character, " he said, stressing that there really wasn't an alternative choice since the only other people on the ballot were two write-in candidates who have not conducted any type of campaign whatsoever.
Nickens granted that it was an unusual situation, in that the paper's editorial page has written editorials "constantly about his [Norman's] ethical lapses," and mentioned how the paper recommended Norman's vanquished GOP rival, Kevin Ambler, for the August 24 primary.
When asked what type of reaction the paper has received, Nickens, who was the paper's political editor before moving upstairs and making room for Adam Smith, admitted that there have been some calls and letters along the lines of, "are you out of your mind?", while others suggested the paper adopt a stance like the Tampa Tribune did in this race, which was simply not to recommend anybody.
This article appears in Oct 14-20, 2010.