A string of recent events motivates us today to reinforce our longstanding call for state and county political party organizations to refrain from formal endorsements of candidates in primary elections.

Last week, the Ohio Republican Party endorsed a wide swath of candidates statewide but also chose not to endorse many unopposed Republicans such as state Reps. Al Cutrona of Mahoning County and Monica Robb Blasdel of Columbiana County. The reason centered not on their quality of leadership for their constituents but rather on petty political party power plays.

In their eyes, Cutrona, Blasdel and about 20 other House Republicans had the unmitigated audacity to disobey GOP leaders’ marching orders by voting with 32 Democrats to elect Jason Stephens, R-Kitts Hill, as speaker of the House last year. In this case, bullying became a prime rationale for kicking those incumbent candidates to the curb.

Then last month in Warren, Trumbull Democratic Party honchos gathered to endorse fellow party members for a variety of county offices. That relatively closed process involving fewer than 150 voters removed the overwhelming majority of the electorate from having a say and may not represent a majority view. That job of whittling the field down to one prime candidate belongs to the people in primaries, not party brass.

That Democratic Party vote rises as undemocratic as the party can get. The endorsees gain unfair advantages during the final six weeks of the campaign season in positive publicity and other privileges.

In addition, primary endorsements can severely weaken and deeply stain party unity and image. Political junkies in Youngstown surely will remember the donnybrook created several years ago when party-endorsed candidates for mayor (then-incumbent John McNally running against Jamael Tito Brown), city council president and municipal court judge among others were soundly defeated by voters in the primary.

Now, as David Skolnick reported in Sunday’s editions of this newspaper, Trumbull County Republicans will meet Saturday to discuss changing several key provisions of its bylaws, including a recommendation to begin endorsing candidates in primary elections, as has been its practice and the well-reasoned practice of the Mahoning County Republican Party for years.

We strongly urge those party leaders to stick with the neutral status quo.

As the above examples and many others illustrate, county and state political parties have too much to lose and little to gain by engaging in organized favoritism before all voters give a complete mandate on the candidate that deserves to be the party’s standard bearer in the general election.

Of course, some will take issue with our stance against political party endorsements. After all, this newspaper historically has issued endorsements of candidates, sometimes in primaries, as a service to readers who are not officially affiliated with the state and county political organizations. We do so, however, as a third-party outside observer, not as a part of what should be a unified political bloc inside individual parties.

As Brenda Linert, former editor of this newspaper, pointed out in one of her final columns recently, we also offer unbiased, balanced news coverage about the races and the candidates — all of them. We don’t limit our coverage to just the endorsed candidates. Further, we encourage and welcome varied opinions from readers who want to discuss, support or criticize any candidate in all upcoming races.

At a time when unity inside political parties, particularly the hyperdivisive Republican Party, has been deteriorating, abandoning disruptive primary endorsements should be a no-brainer. The right thing for the Democratic and Republican parties on the county and state levels to prioritize is to cease making primary endorsements.

Let the voters decide.