The purpose of an endorsement is, ostensibly, for a newspaper's editorial board to support the candidate it feels will do best if elected; which candidate the board wants to see in office. For that reason, The Daily Cardinal cannot give an endorsement in the Republican primary between Milwaukee County Executive Scott Walker or former congressman Mark Neumann.
No matter the results of Tuesday's primary, this newspaper will, in all likelihood, endorse Milwaukee Mayor Tom Barrett to lead the state. Therefore we cannot endorse either Walker or Neumann, since we ultimately feel they would both make bad governors.
We debated how we, as Barrett supporters, should approach this endorsement—if we would pick the lesser of the two evils or the one we think would be weaker competition for Barrett—and realized endorsing anyone would at least be disingenuous, and at worst a malicious attempt to weaken the general election.
Both men oppose high-speed rail between Madison and Milwaukee, both want to repeal Wisconsin's smoking ban and both would pursue budget policies that could put the university's funding at risk. To say we endorse a Republican candidate would mean saying we endorse those policies, which we do not.
Ultimately, Barrett is the best candidate for governor, and endorsing either Walker or Neumann, even in a contest between the two of them, is something we simply cannot do.
