"The Stranger"'s Terrible Election Endorsement

As most people know, next Tuesday is mid-term election day. It's a journalistic tradition for newspapers to endorse candidates and propositions on the ballot. One of Seattle's major free weeklies, The Stranger, has done just that. And, while most of their endorsements are fine by my book, one really stands out as, well, just plain bad.

Here's the background: the 43rd district in Washington State includes some of the more liberal portions of Seattle, which itself is a fairly liberal city. For a while now, Ed Murray has been one of the Democratic representatives to the state House for the 43rd. For 2006, a seat opened up in the state Senate, and Ed Murray decided to run for the seat (which he'll most likely win). This means Murray is vacating a House seat, which will almost surely go to a Democratic candidate.

Our primary last September pitted 6 Democratic candidates against each other. The result was Jamie Pedersen edging out Jim Street and 4 others for the nomination, with 23% of the vote. You could argue that 77% of the Democratic voters were disappointed, but you can also probably bet that most of those voters will vote Pedersen in.

Enter The Stranger. From their election endorsements:

Admittedly, there is one Republican we just can't resist endorsing. In the 43rd District race our Democratic candidate of choice, Stephanie Pure, was eliminated in the primary. As a consequence, the state legislature will once again lack a voice for today's youth. Which is why we're issuing a rare Republican endorsement: vote for Hugh Foskett, the Republican running against Jamie Pedersen for this open seat in the Washington State House of Representatives. Foskett is a sophomore at the University of Washington and, as we've seen over the last few weeks, Foskett is quite literally in touch with today's young people.

Wait, Stranger, you're endorsing a Republican college student? For one of the most liberal districts in Seattle?

I don't want to marginalize Foskett, but he's a sophomore math major at UW. He doesn't appear to have any background in public service (at least, his web site and voter pamphlet statement don't seem to indicate any). He's running on two issues (education, environment) with fairly generic positions. And, for the sake of argument, if he's elected, will he just drop his studies when Olympia is in session each year?

Pedersen is a lawyer, active in many local organizations, and has worked for marriage equality and GLBT issues. He's not my ideal choice, as I believe he's less progressive on issues outside of the GLBT space, but he's the best on the ballot in my opinion.

Since The Stranger's pick during the primary, Stephanie Pure, didn't get nominated, why not recommend that people write her in? Isn't that the best way to cast one's vote towards the person who one feels is best qualified?