Ridenbaugh Press/Northwest

Mid-October Sunday - sounds like time for a slug of newspaper endorsements. And so there are, a batch of them around the region worth consideration.

Salem Statesman Journal: Endorsements toward the top of the ticket are splashier but tend to matter less because people have so many other sources of information about those races. (They can matter most, say, in contests for school district or highway commission.) That said, the Oregon Senate contest still looks so close that any factor could be a decisive tipper.

The Salem paper went for Republican incumbent Gordon Smith, over Democrat Jeff Merkley, partly on a key basis Smith has been urging: “Smith, who is seeking a third term, remains the best choice. He is in tune with Oregonians’ common-sense, middle-of-the-road values. Republican Smith from rural Eastern Oregon makes a good team with Democratic Sen. Ron Wyden from liberal Portland. Lots of candidates talk about bipartisanship. Smith delivers on it. He and Wyden collaborate on issues that affect everyday Oregonians: the environment, health care, children’s welfare, veterans’ affairs, immigration and more.” So we now have Eugene and Astoria for Merkley and Salem for Smith (which is where we imagine the Oregonian will go).

Eugene Register-Guard: One of the most interesting races in the Northwest this year is the mayoralty of Eugene, where former Mayor Jim Torrey is trying to unseat his successor, Kitty Piercy. There are lots of layers here. In this non-partisan race, Piercy, more to the left, is a former Democratic legislator, while Torry (now registered as unaffiliated) is a former (2006) Republican candidate for the state Senate. But the more relevant layers have to do with which set of interest groups and which parts of town will dominate.

In endorsing Torrey (who we’re inclined to think will win the election), the RG said that in the May primary election, “Under conditions that should have strongly favored a Democrat, Piercy fell short of the 50 percent threshold needed for an outright victory in the primary. A lot of Democrats and independents must have crossed over to vote for Torrey. That vote was a sign of frustration with what’s happening in Eugene City Hall. The frustration is deepest in north and west Eugene, where city government is seen to be controlled by a faction of the City Council that prevails because of Mayor Piercy’s tie-breaking votes. To many, these votes appear to either serve the interests of the parts of the city represented by the majority, as with some of the votes preceding acquisition of property at the head of the Amazon channel, or to disregard the interests of the parts of the city represented by councilors in the minority, as with the vote to terminate the West Eugene Parkway. Piercy is irretrievably identified with one faction of a split council, and there’s no reason to believe a second term would be different.”

Seattle Times, and Seattle Post-Intelligencer. An endorsement in three U.S. House races, all incumbents - Democrat Jay Inslee in the 1st Washington district, Democrat Rick Larsen in the 2nd, and Republican Dave Reichert in the 8th. That feels like some cover thrown in, because the key race and endorsement is Reichert’s (the other two will be incumbent runaways). Democrat Darcy Burner has developed this year one of the deepest and strongest challenger campaigns the Northwest has seen, and this is a serious contest.

Still, when the Times remarked that “Democrat Burner was often sure-footed in the CityClub debate in Bellevue, co-sponsored by The Seattle Times, but she has yet to prove she is best prepared to represent a district that is both urban and rural, complicated and demanding,” it almost sounds like a suggestion that her campaign, for the second time, will do well but come up short. Recent polling numbers have indicated as much.

The P-I’s endorsement here was a little surprising; its key point was, “For those of us who think that there should be strong reasons to kick out an incumbent trying to represent a diverse district well, Dave Reichert is the choice for re-election. We also think that preserving and encouraging the development of a rare voice of moderation within the Republican Party is important at a time of almost unremitting polarization.”

The reposte from Horse’s Ass: “what we have seen from both papers is little more than a defense of incumbency, a circular logic that argues that Reichert’s experience in Congress, however unremarkable, is the singular qualification that makes him a better choice than Darcy.”

Portland Oregonian. No surprise whatever in the O’s endorsement of the four House members seeking re-election, and of Democrat Kurt Schrader for the open seat, over Republican Mike Erickson. The edit does note that Erickson’s (self-funded) spending is enough to keep some competition going in the race. On the other hand, it didn’t do him much good running against Darlene Hooley two years ago. And he has some seriously bad headlines to contend with this time.

Boise Idaho Statesman. Also no kind of surprise, the Statesman’s endorsement of Democrat Walt Minnick over Republican incumbent Bill Sali in the 1st district. Its take: “Bill Sali’s command of the issues has matured over the past two years. But Sali has not matured into the job of representing Idaho in Congress. The Republican’s political instinct is to pander to his constituency’s fringes - even when the situation demands statesmanship and problem-solving.” And, “We believe Minnick can approach the issues with a thoughtful independence.”