endorsements

The Hampton Union and The Portsmouth Herald have endorsed separate candidates in the Senate district 24 race.

The Hampton Union endorsed political newcomer Christian Callahan (R-Portsmouth), while The Portsmouth Herald endorsed state Sen. Martha Fuller Clark (D-Portsmouth). Seacoast Media Group owns both papers.

Gov. Deval Patrick commended the state Senate Thursday for its vote asking for State Sen. Dianne Wilkerson's resignation.

"On a bi-partisan basis, the Senate today unanimously re-affirmed that elected officials should be held to the highest ethical standards," the Milton Democrat said. "I support and respect their action."

Patrick endorsed Wilkerson in her primary against Sonia Chang-Diaz this year. He switched to supporting Chang-Diaz after she defeated Wilkerson in the primary and Wilkerson launched a write-in campaign for the general election.

Gov. John Lynch's campaign has released a list of Republicans that have endorsed his re-election campaign.

The group, "Republicans for Lynch," is co-chaired by former Republican Gov. Walter Peterson and business owner Bill Steele.

Former Gov. Bill Weld said Monday that the national Republican Party is "playing on a smaller field" and that he may have been more inclined to endorse Republican presidential nominee John McCain had he selected fellow former Bay State Gov. Mitt Romney as his running mate.

Weld, who endorsed Democratic presidential nominee Barack Obama last week, appeared on MSNBC's Morning Joe Monday morning, shortly after Romney also appeared on the show. Weld endorsed Romney during his presidential run this year and was immediately asked if he thought McCain should have tapped Romney as his running mate.

"Well that would have been a running start," Weld said. "I think what Mitt Romney and Barack Obama have in common, and not too many people would see a common thread there, I think they both process a lot of new information and respond to conditions on the ground."

"Of course the thing I loved about Gov. Romney is he knows so much about the economy," he added.

Sonia Chang-Diaz’s campaign website features an endorsement she never received.

In the endorsement box on the right side of Chang-Diaz's website, El Mundo, the Hispanic newspaper, is listed as one of the Jamaica Plain Democrat's backers.

But Alberto Vasallo, El Mundo's editor in chief, told PolitickerMA.com that his paper never endorsed Chang-Diaz.

"I think there was a mix up," Vasallo said. "The newspaper did not, does not and will not be endorsing in this particular race."

 State Sen. Dianne Wilkerson's campaign responded on Wednesday to charges that her campaign website still listed endorsements she has lost since Sonia Chang-Diaz beat her in the Democratic primary, saying the website was only for the primary and pointing to a new general election website.

The old website also no longer works.

On Monday, Hillary Chabot of the Boston Herald noted that Wilkerson's campaign website, www.DianneDelivers2008.com, still listed endorsements from Gov. Deval Patrick, House Speaker Salvatore DiMasi and state Senate President Therese Murray even though they are now backing Chang-Diaz.

In a statement made to PolitickerMA.com, Jeff Ross, a spokesman for Wilkerson, said that website was only used for the primary.

"There was an old web site that was the prior web-site. We have a new web site focused on information relevant and necessary leading up to Nov. 4, 2008 in our write in sticker campaign," Ross said.

The Committee for Small Government said Tuesday that Steve Forbes has endorsed its effort to abolish the state income tax with Question 1 on the November ballot.

Steve ForbesIn an editorial set to run in Forbes magazine next Monday, Forbes, a wealthy businessman and publisher of the magazine, said the measure will serve as a necessary wake-up call to the Democratic establishment in the Bay State.

"The reason the measure stands even a chance of passing is not that Bay State citizens are selfish (even though each would enjoy on average an additional $3,700 of income) but that they are angry," Forbes writes, according to an email sent by the Committee for Small Government obtained by PolitickerMA.com. "This is an attack on political establishments there and throughout the U.S. that routinely put their own interests above those of their constituents: lavish government pensions with payouts that would bankrupt private companies; resistance to genuine reform in Medicaid spending, which has become the biggest item on virtually every state's budget; ever more pork-barrel spending; and ever more obsequiousness to rapacious special interests."

Gov. Chris Gregoire added five newspaper endorsements over the weekend, including two who chose Dino Rossi in 2004.

This past Sunday's editorial pages included pro-Gregoire editorials from the Spokesman-Review (Spokane), Everett Herald, Bellingham Herald, Skagit Valley Herald (Mt. Vernon), and Kitsap Sun (Bremerton).

Newspaper endorsements frequently tend to favor incumbents over challengers, but still the Gregoire campaign is particularly happy to receive a "flip" from the largest newspapers in two key battleground counties, Snohomish (Everett Herald) and Spokane (Spokesman-Review). Both of those papers endorsed Rossi in 2004, and he won both counties that year, but Gregoire made gains in this year's "top two" primary.

The S-R editorial indicates that Gregoire has had a mainly positive term and appreciates her work with Eastern Washington.

The chairman of the Republican Liberty Caucus of Massachusetts endorsed Barack Obama late Sunday night, joining other Republicans who have recently moved away from their party's own standard bearer, John McCain.

U.S. Sen. Barack Obama (D-Ill.)Jason Burkins, who is also a member of the Somerville Ward 5 Republican Committee, said in an email that he no longer sees eye-to-eye with the principles of the national GOP.

"Though I have always disagreed with the party on various issues, I have always been able to find more common ground with my fellow GOP brethren than with the Democrat Party," he said. "Since the election of George W. Bush as president, over the past eight years, that common ground has slipped and dwindled."

The Boston Globe endorsed Democratic nominee Barack Obama for president Tuesday, saying the Illinois Democrat has the "vision to restore this country to its place of leadership in the world."

Democratic presidential nominee Barack Obama (D-Ill.)In its editorial, the Globe emphasizes that Obama has looked forward while his rivals, both in the primary and in the general election, were still waging old conflicts.

"Obama isn't refighting the political or cultural battles of the 1960s," the Globe writes, "Instead, he is asking Americans to take responsibility for the nation's problems now; no one else will take care of them, and the consequences of years of disunity and profligacy should not be visited upon future generations."