Foley agrees to meet with newspapers — with a caveat

Tom Foley, Republican candidate for governor, meets with the News-Times editorial board Tuesday, Oct. 12, 2010.

Tom Foley, Republican candidate for governor, meets with the News-Times editorial board Tuesday, Oct. 12, 2010.

Republican Tom Foley is giving newspaper editorial boards one bite at the apple this midterm election season.

Making his second run for governor, the former U.S. ambassador to Ireland has committed to sitting down with and answering questions from newspaper editors around the state as part of the time-old endorsement process.

Fighting the label that he is commitment-phobic when its comes to debates and other unscripted encounters on the campaign trail — one given to him by his political opponents — Foley is giving editorial boards a choice to meet with him before the Aug. 12 GOP primary or before the general election.

“So he’s basically saying to them, ‘I’ll do it once,’ ” said Chris Cooper, a campaign spokesman for Foley. “It doesn’t make a lot of sense for him to do two a-month-and-a-half apart.”

A rite of the campaign season that can be a baptism by fire for unprepared candidates, the custom is for newspaper editorial boards to bring candidates in for an extended question-and-answer session before making endorsements in races.

Reporters are NOT part of the editorial boards, though sometimes they will sit in on the proceedings and write a story about the positions of a candidate.

While some newspapers make endorsements for primaries, the dailies owned by Hearst Connecticut Media have tended to avoid the practice.

Foley has agreed to meet with the editorial board of the Hartford Courant before the primary after initially balking at the invitation, Hearst has learned.

In 2012, Senate candidate Linda McMahon faced a torrent of criticism when she bypassed newspaper editorial boards during the GOP primary. She eventually met with them before the general election, which she lost to then-Congressman Christopher Murphy.

 

Neil Vigdor