ENDORSEMENT GUIDELINES

1. GRNS may endorse candidates in county, state, and national elections after a partisan primary election (if needed) has determined the candidate(s) for the general election. GRNS may endorse candidates in local non-partisan elections (municipal, school board, judicial) in the rare instance when a candidate representing the vision and values of our organization faces a challenge from a candidate with opposing views of principle, or on state or national issues.
2. Candidates must request an endorsement from GRNS. A request for endorsement can be made by the candidate or their campaign representative. GRNS will acknowledge receipt of a request within a day.
3. Except as provided in paragraph 9, no endorsement will be made until nomination papers have been filed. The request for endorsement must be received at least 30 days in advance of the election.
4. Candidates requesting endorsement must provide information via their responses to our questionnaire and/or a campaign summary. The information received may be edited for format, and then will be published in the newsletter and on the website. A request for endorsement with incomplete information will be returned with instructions on how to complete and resubmit it.
5. An Endorsements Committee will review the information received and determine as quickly as possible whether or not to re commend an endorsement.
6. Endorsements Committee recommendations must be approved by the Steering Committee within two days of the Endorsements Committee’s recommendation. The Steering Committee will be notified of the Endorsements Committee recommendation via email and decide whether to approve.
7. The requestor will be notified by e‐mail of the endorsement decision.
8. Candidate endorsements are usually in the following format: GRNS endorses candidate A for office X with a brief comment covering why the endorsement is being made.
9. Candidates who request our endorsement and who GRNS has endorsed previously will be endorsed again absent new information that causes concern without going through the full endorsement review process. The candidate will supply relevant updated information for our endorsement statement.
10. Except as provided in paragraph 9, GRNS does not endorse in contested primaries where there are multiple candidates running who represent the vison and values of our organization. However, the Endorsements Committee may send standardized questionnaires for each office to Democratic candidates in the race to gather standard information and publish it on the website and newsletter in order to help voters make a decision.
11. In an effort to provide voters with information about nonpartisan election candidates when GRNS is not endorsing, the Endorsements Committee will send questionnaires to all candidates in contested elections and publish their responses on our website. For candidates who do not return the questionnaire, there will be a statement indicating that they did not respond to our request.