Much ado seems to be made over which individual or organization supports which candidate.
My reaction is, “So??” I certainly trust my own judgement regarding who I want in office over what some celeb or union leadership or newspaper editor may say.
Still, I can’t help but think that the public declaration of endorsement must mean something or make some difference. Does it affect how you view a candidate or referendum?
They do, but usually in the negative. If the California Teacher’s Association endorses someone, I generally make it a point to vote for someone else.
To be honest, an endorsement makes me feel good about a choice I’ve already made. 
Not that I need validation for my decision, but it’s kind of a “score one for me” lighthearted feeling.
The problem is that perhaps the majority of voters are influenced by who they think will win.
They want to back winners.
Why? Probably insecurity. I recall working for McGovern, with the bumpersticker, wearing the pin everywhere for the final weeks, and having to face everyone later and hope they didn’t bring it up.
I don’t give much weight to endorsements, particularly celebrity endorsements such as typified by Oprah this week. I usually think something along the lines of “What does Barbara Striesands’s opinion matter to me?”
I do give a little more weight to political endorsements, but again, not much. Here, I’ll wonder “How closely does this persons past history reflect my opinions?”
In local races, I tend to look at who the *Dallas Morning News *endorses and then vote for their opponent.
I am influenced by endorsements.
I think newspapers and other print media have the time and resources to work through things I don’t have the time and resources for. They often write an endorsement in such a way that I can apply my leanings and preferences to the points they make. So, for example, they might endorse a presidential candidate like McCain, who is both hawkish and very independent about some of the nastier things the Republicans have done, and I don’t like the hawkishness and I do like the independence, but they’ve collected a bunch of points right there, and often have done at least some work to vouch for the honesty and accuracy of the campaign statements. So I can apply my preferences to hawkishness and independence.
I also find it comforting when the endorsement is for a candidate that I want to vote for. The Economist endorsed Kerry for prez in '04. This was already my choice at the time. But if they had not endorsed him, I’d have read to find out why, with a mind to noticing something I’d forgotten or missed or misunderstood. Now I am equivocating between Obama and Clinton and Edwards and maybe even Richardson, and want to read recent endorsements to see what the newshounds propose to base voting decisions on.
Yeah, I’m a reverse barometer kind of gal, myself.
It depends on the endorser.
I don’t really care which candidate Oprah is endorsing because I know nearly nothing (nor do I care to learn) about her political philosophies.
But if someone (or some group) I know, like, and tend to agree with endorses a candidate or a ballot measure, I’ll look at their reasons for their endorsement.
For local candidates who are hard for me to research, I’ll often rely on who the local papers are endorsing, especially if they don’t seem to just go by party line.
I’ll also consider endorsement by civil right’s groups such as ACLU since that’s an important issue to me.
But who Oprah or Angelina Jolie is going to vote for is bollocks to me.
I’m this way. If the Detroit Free Press endorses someone, that means I should probably vote for the other guy.
As for celebrity endoresements, I don’t care one way or the other. I’m not going to vote for Obama because Oprah likes him, but I’m not going to think any less of him either.
What about unions? If you’re a union member, do you feel compelled to vote the union line?
I think if someone I regarded highly in a particular field made an endorsement based upon their expertise in that field (for example, an economist,) I might look at that candidate more closely, but I can’t imagine being swayed to change my vote just because such-and-such an authority liked Candidate X. As for celebs - I can’t imagine any whose opinions I care about when it comes to politics or issues.
For the most part no, but when I saw Mike Huckabee’s Chuck Norris ad, I sat up and paid attention. I don’t plan on voting for him, but for those few moments, I was like “hey, right on, it’s Chuck Norris. Maybe Huckabee isnt’ so bad”. So I guess that’s something.
Well, a lot of it depends upon the endorsing person, or organization. If it’s a person or organization I respect, their endorsement will at least get me to evaluate their candidate based on the reasons they give for the endorsement.
Celebrity endorsements mean diddly to me. The newspaper’s endorsement will highlight at least some of the issues in the race, so I will add that to the other things I’d already been considering.
In local races, especially in primary season, I will usually consider an endorsement by certain persons or groups to be bad news. So I often go the other way.
But in major races, I have usually picked my horse before the endorsers get out of bed, so no they don’t mean anything.
I don’t think that endorsements mean much to the type of people who are likely to be posting in a thread on a message board about whether political endorsements matter to them.
But to the famed middle, those who are just now starting to think about the presidential election, I think endorsements matter more than a little. Especially newspaper endorsements, which are one of the few areas left in which local news carries any weight.
There is also the phenomenon of the Bar Association’s list of approved judges- that is an endosement that carries a great deal of weight with a lot of voters.
Ehh, endorsements are all marketing. That said, if it’s my favored candidate that’s receiving the endorsement, I’ll be happy that he/she is getting more press and face time in a favorable, or at least non-negative, way. Endorsements would certainly never sway my opinions, though, just like neither would TV commercials or signs or giveaways.
Well, very few people will admit to being successfully marketed to, and yet billions are spent on marketing yearly. You don’t exactly vote for a person because of a yard sign or a button or an endorsement, but those things allow you to consider the candidate as a legitimate choice, and validate your thoughtful political decisions/knee-jerk reactions (whatever the case may be).
For the most part they mean nothing to me, but once in a while the endorsements might spell out more than the Proposition/candidate ever could.
In our last election, there was one bill (I forget which it was) that was supported by a list of groups as long as my leg… teachers, cops, firefighters, sunshine, and puppies. The "No’ side had one name. Ed Jew, who spent the three months before the election on the front pages here, due to extortion, lying about where he lived, running to China, and tons of other stuff (most of which was just stupid- he claimed he lived in SF, but the house he claimed had gone through like seven gallons of water in the past year).
The proposition passed.
It depends if I have two candidates for the same office that I feel like I agree with and could support equally on the issues that are important to me. Sometimes, if an organizaton I resepct makes the call between one or the other, it could make a difference if they really see a difference between the two candidates’ positions. Doesn’t happen often, but it’s helped a couple of times.
Newpapers or celebs, not so much.