The Globe's endorsement today of Tim Flaherty for state senate, to replace Jarret Barrios, is a big boost for Flaherty. Should make things increasingly interesting in that four-way race, with the election a week from today.
It's a bit frustrating, though, that the Globe's editors have established this practice of not mentioning the other candidates in their endorsements. Dan Kennedy has written about this previously on
his blog. I don't get the rationale for it.
An election is all about comparative choices, so why pretend that the selection of one candidate is made in a vacuum?
It's particularly frustrating in this case, because the endorsement of Flaherty begs the question: why not Anthony Galluccio? Is it because of his policy stands? Is there something they don't like about his work on the Cambridge City Council? Or do they have some reticence stemming from the allegations of drunk-driving? It would help the readers greatly if the Globe editors would explain.
I don't mean to downplay Paul Nowicki and Jeff Ross, who are both also very good candidates. Globe readers deserve some argument for Flaherty over those two as well.
I'm not disputing the editors' choice, just their explanation. Perhaps it would help if they at least set out their reasoning for presenting their endorsements the way they do.