Dear editor, I was surprised to see the Register’s endorsement of John McCain. Rather than rebut your perceived strengths of McCain, I’d like to understand why a community newspaper is so out of step with the majority of the community it represents.

I called Napa’s elections office this morning to discover we have 18,424 registered Democrats, as opposed to 10,623 Republicans; 6,621 declined to state a party. As a whole, we tend to vote overwhelmingly for the Democratic candidates and principles.

This leads me to wonder: your endorsement doesn’t support the community. Is it independently based on the opinions of your editorial staff, or are you required to follow the endorsement of your corporate owner, Lee Enterprises, Inc., of Davenport, Iowa? I feel this is an important question considering all of our valley newspapers are owned by the same corporation.

By the way, 15 newspapers across the country endorsed Sen. Obama last weekend, while Sen. McCain was endorsed by the Napa Register and the Wheeling News Register of West Virginia, which always endorses the Republican candidate.

Brian Revheim / Napa