Editorial: Who is the Tribune-Review endorsing?

The Tribune-Review is not telling you how to vote.

Our place is not to give you a checklist of people that we believe are the right people to fill the slate of offices that will be on ballots in Southwestern Pennsylvania on Election Day.

Our place is not to expand our position into your voting booth.

For one thing, that assumes that we have one position. We are a news organization made up of lots of people doing dozens of jobs with myriad backgrounds and beliefs. We don’t all agree on a lunch order let alone who we want making the decisions in our government.

But more importantly, we cannot say that our job is to be impartial if we pick a side when it comes time to cast a vote.

So no, we are not saying to pick this person from the Republicans or that one from the Democrats. We aren’t advocating this person for governor or that one for Senate.

Our endorsement goes to the issues and the facts.

Rather than telling you why you should vote for one person, we will continue to give the most up-to-date information and analysis about local issues regarding health care, such as the UPMC-Highmark standoff. We will ask hard questions about the Catholic church grand jury report and what the state’s next moves will be.

We will follow national stories that hit our area hard, like taxes and tariffs, and tell you what the people running for Congress and Senate are doing or saying about them.

When a newspaper does its job, people don’t need endorsements. You don’t need to be told who gets your vote when you have all of the information you can get about the issues that are important to you.

With comprehensive coverage and unbiased facts, you are well-armed and well-prepared to make your own choices based on what is important to you. Maybe health care is your top priority. Maybe it’s education. Maybe it’s taxes.

Your vote is the most important voice that you have in your government, whether it is being given to your school board or your governor, and no one should get to use your voice but you.

So no, the Tribune-Review is not telling you who to vote for on Nov. 6.

We are just telling you to vote.