By The River

Linda Thompson told a whopper this morning at the Harrisburg Regional Chamber breakfast, asserting that she had been endorsed by the Patriot-News and was "elated" to receive their endorsement. Trouble is, the newspaper didn't endorse her. In an editorial this morning, the Patriot-News said it was going to endorse Thompson over her opponent, Nevin Mindlin, for mayor of Harrisburg, but changed its mind after the miasma of questions about her finances, employment history, and other issues arose in the past week.

I wasn't at the Chamber breakfast, but two people who were there independently confirmed the incident. One said her campaign manager, James Ellison, had the paper in front of him, got up, went up to Thompson while Mindlin was making his opening statement. He whispered in her ear and handed her a note. When it was her turn to speak, she said, "I am elated to receive the endorsement of the Patriot-News." She also said she was surprised to receive the endorsement given the stories the paper has been writing about her. Perhaps that should have been her first clue.

The editorial basically said Thompson blew it, praised Mindlin for his thoughtfulness and honesty, and then punted, saying it was "unfair to offer an endorsement right before voters go to the polls." Excuse me? Endorsements a week before the election are par for the course. The editorial expressed anxiety about what more might surface about Thompson in the days before the election.

So Linda has some 'splainin' to do. Only the most cursory of readings of the editorial, and I'm talking about an extremely quick skim, would have allowed Ellison and Thompson to have missed this: "At one level, Thompson has the greater potential for mayor. Unfortunately, she also offers the much bigger risk." Or, "At her worst, she sometimes offers solutions with no clear plan to execute them...As we have seen increasingly during these last few days, she can lash out angrily at those who disagree with her..."

Yeah, that's an endorsement alright.