Those PG endorsements

I know what you're thnking, now that you've pored over the election results in yesterday's and today's paper: How did the PG editorial board do with its endorsed candidates on election night? In short, not as well as in recent primaries. 

The editorial board interviewed more than 40 candidates, in contested statewide and Allegheny County races, for the May 19 primary. (There is no other newspaper in this half of the state that makes such a commitment to grilling and recommending people running for office.) In the last six weeks we endorsed candidates for 23 party nominations, and our recap ran Sunday.  In the end, 12 of the endorsed candidates won nomination, for a success rate of 52 percent.

That's lower than in recent primaries; 66 percent of our endorsees won in May 2005 and 69 percent won in May 2007. That's because judicial races, which dominated this primary, make for unpredictable outcomes.

Voters have a hard time discerning one judge candidate from another. Many vote for familiar names, despite record or qualifications; Don Walko and Barbara Behrend Ernsberger were two winners who were rated not recommended by bar associations. Some are influenced by glossy TV commercials; another winner, Michelle Zappala Peck, sister of the DA and a pretty face in her many TV ads, was rated not recommended by the county bar.

But then the PG editorial board is not about picking winners, just the most qualified candidates. Then, of course, the voters get their say. In a perfect world, we wouldn't have to make endorsements, but voters don't have the kind of access with the candidates that the region's major newspaper does. So we'll keep choosing good  candidates, regardless of what the voters do with their ballots.