26 October—Justin Potter, the Democrat candidate for State Senate District 30, finally replied to my question about state constitutional amendments to enable voter initiative referendums and recall of elected officials: “My apologies. Such legislation would not be at the top of my list of priorities, but I’d be happy to hear the case for it at some time.” Honest response. Even thoughtful. Full marks and best of luck to Justin.

On the other hand, neither of the local Republican candidates for the General Assembly—Stephen Harding for State Senate District 30 and Karen Reddington-Hughes for House District 66—has even had the courtesy to acknowledge my four emails. The complacent Republican party hacks evidently reckon they can ignore constituents but keep their seats. What can I say? They embarrass Republicans.

You’ll recall that I didn’t ask Sharon Sherman, Democrat candidate for State House District 66, because her only public access is through social media, on which I will not tread. But I suspect that Sharon would have responded like Justin.

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What’s the big deal about the Los Angeles Times and The Washington Post not endorsing a presidential candidate this year? No question that it’s a function of the purely pecuniary motivation of the hypocritical owners of both rags who don’t want to rub a possible second Trump administration (God forbid!) the wrong way. Both Times owner Patrick soon-Shiong and Post owner Jeff Bezos derive considerable income from and through sucking up to the federal government. So you can’t really blame them for overruling their editorial employees, some of whom have quit in self-righteously huffy protest.

But does anyone really believe newspaper endorsements actually influence voters in any elections to any great extent? Readers of whatever rags know where the editorial boards stand on issues simply by reading editorials—and often subtly slanted news stories, editorial cartoons, and even comics. Even comics?

So editorial endorsements are just editorial ego trips that reinforce what readers already know or should know. Most of the time, anyway. Among the notable exceptions is an instance a few decades ago when the Waterbury Republican (as the Republican-American was at the time), a bastion of conservative politics since 1620, nevertheless inexplicably endorsed a liberal Democrat rather than a conservative Republican for a State Assembly seat. Both candidates were and are friends of mine.

The Republican won anyway. Same match-up two years later. Same endorsement. Same result. The Republican representative went on to serve a long and honorable term in the House and has since gone on to better things. And the Democrat (an active Republican at college) also has gone on to better things.

Most people think for themselves. Well, lots of people, anyway. Some people? Maybe? For better or worse. And celebrity endorsements probably are more influential than newspaper endorsements and lawn signs. What really works in political campaigns is knocking copy—negative, nasty, absolutely dirty stuff about the opposition. Even if it’s just a bunch of lies, which campaign advertising is often as not, it puts doubt into voters’ minds. And mud sticks. And leaves a stain even when it’s washed away.

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Today must not pass without congratulations to Hillary Rodham Clinton on her 77^th birthday. Donald Trump has her to thank for his election in 2016 and the United States has her to thank for the most despicable, corrupt, and deranged president we’ve ever suffered . . .