How much weight do you give endorsements?

[MrCoffee]

What value do you place on endorsements when choosing a candidate? Is there a difference in endorsement value depending on the race (i.e.; the local paper's endorsement of a candidate for city council means more/less than the local paper's endorsement of a presidential candidate)?

[Labors of Hercules]

1. Depends on who's doing the endorsing. nt.

[Deep13]

2. Local paper endorsement tells me that assholes support that candidate. nt

[Didereaux]

3. the ONLY endorsements that count are...

the politicl ones which are at-large delegates at the convention. I am always shocked that so few people realize that each Democratic Congressman, Govenor and several other poiticos has a delegate vote separate from any that are primary delegates. Hillary for instance can run 2d and 3rd in several so called key states and STILL have more delegates than the candidate with the most primary delegates.

[gateley]

4. Agreed. Depends on who's doing the endorsing. nt

[rucky]

5. Al Gore and John Kerry endorsements have value

and that's about it.

[slackmaster]

6. When I am influenced by one, it's almost always in a negative way

For example, I view an endorsement by an anti-abortion group as a reason not to support a candidate. OTOH an endorsement from a pro-choice group has little meaning for me.

[LWolf]

7. Other:

If I feel that I have enough information about all the candidates to make an informed decision, then endorsements have no effect whatsoever.

If I don't feel that I know enough about the candidates, then I will look at the groups that have endorsed each one. That tends to happen more often in smaller local or regional races, where candidates operate on smaller budgets and may not have as much contact or information out as "bigger" campaigns.

[frogmarch]

8. No value in my picking a candidate, but

when I find out some celebrity or other is endorsing a republican, that celebrity is on my shit list.