Fielded a lot of questions from readers recently wanting to know if Blue Ridge Muse will be endorsing any of the candidates for election next week.

No. We don't do endorsements.

As residents of Floyd County, Amy and I both prefer candidates we hope will win and we will be voting for them.

But as a journalist who covers the county government and the courts for the The Floyd Press, it would be improper for me to publicly endorse or support any candidate. That's why you won't find any yard signs for a candidate in our yard, any bumper stickers on our cars and you won't find any endorsement of a candidate on this web site.

When the election season started, a number of candidates asked me to sign their petition to get on ballot. I had to decline. Once again, doing so would suggest an endorsement of that candidate.

We will provide our endorsement of candidates in the privacy of the voting booth on Tuesday and we encourage other voters in Floyd County to do the same.

When I was in high school in Floyd County, and also working for The Floyd Press, the editor of the Franklin News-Post in Rocky Mount was a crusty ex-merchant marine named Kermit Salyer. He answered the question of endorsements in the 1964 Presidential elections with this front-page editorial:

We have received many inquiries from readers wanting to know just whom this newspaper will endorse in the upcoming Presidential election.  After careful consideration, we have decided that this newspaper cannot, in good conscience, endorse either of the candidates for President.

In our opinion, neither (Lyndon) Johnson nor (Barry) Goldwater are of Presidential caliber and neither (Hubert) Humphrey or (William) Miller (the vice presidential candidates) would make decent washroom janitors.

Frankly, we can't see any value in replacing one set of the sons-of-bitches with another.