By JONATHAN MARTIN
SEPT. 14, 2016
When Donald J. Trump returns to campaign in New Hampshire on Thursday, he will be greeted by a familiar, if unwelcome, sight — a blistering attack on the front page of The Union Leader.
After assailing Mr. Trump on a regular basis leading up to the state’s primary, the venerable Union Leader, a conservative bulwark for generations, is now going a step further: For the first time in over 100 years, New Hampshire’s largest newspaper will not be endorsing the Republican nominee for president.
“The man is a liar, a bully, a buffoon,” wrote Joseph W. McQuaid, the Union Leader publisher, of Mr. Trump in a signed editorial. “He denigrates any individual or group that displeases him. He has dishonored military veterans and their families, made fun of the physically frail, and changed political views almost as often as he has changed wives.”Rather than picking between what Mr. McQuaid termed “the lesser of two evils,” The Union Leader has bestowed its endorsement on Gary Johnson, the Libertarian nominee for president. Notably, the paper made clear that it was backing the entire Libertarian ticket, which includes William Weld, a former Massachusetts governor who is familiar to some New Hampshire voters.
“They would be worth considering under many circumstances,” Mr. McQuaid writes. “In today’s dark times, they are a bright light of hope and reason.”
The Union Leader endorsement could make an impact in the hard-fought contest in New Hampshire: An NBC News/Wall Street Journal/Marist poll of likely voters from earlier this month showed Hillary Clinton with a slim, two-point edge on Mr. Trump, with Mr. Johnson capturing 15 percent of the vote. Enjoying the support of The Union Leader, with its recurring front-page editorials reaffirming its choice, could give Mr. Johnson a lift in the Libertarian-leaning state, draining votes from Mr. Trump (and potentially from Mrs. Clinton).
Newspaper endorsements have considerably less currency now than in an earlier political era, of course. The Union Leader’s backing of Gov. Chris Christie of New Jersey in the state’s primary did little for his campaign and their regular broadsides against Mr. Trump did not stop him from rolling to a 19-point victory there.
But in withholding the paper’s endorsement of Mr. Trump, Mr. McQuaid, who has sparred more than once with the Republican nominee on Twitter, is attempting to get in a final word with his New York nemesis.
“Voters leaning toward Trump are understandably fed up with the status quo, of which Clinton is a prime example,” he writes. “But they kid themselves if they think Trump isn’t pretty much a part of that status quo as well, or that he is in any way qualified to competently lead this nation.”
More here.
