I’m just reading the NW Examiner’s endorsements, for Amanda Fritz and Erik Sten. (Hey, that’s who we endorsed, too! Check out the rest of our endorsements here in a handy cheat sheet, useful for filling out that ballot—it’s due May 16!)

The NW Examiner—Northwest Portland’s neighborhood paper—leaned heavily on candidates’ performance at their recent community candidate forum, which focused exclusively on a neighborhood planning document that a lot of neighbors don’t agree with.

Fritz got props for being exceptionally prepared for the debate, and for “specific and insightful answers.”

Sten had a more nuanced view on the neighborhood plan, but won the endorsement for being “thoughtful and honest.” Contrast that with his opponent, Ginny Burdick:

Ginny Burdick had almost nothing to say on the topic. She considers the plan a done deal, while admitting that it did not represent a neighborhood consensus. Running as a pro-business alternative to Sten, her game plan appeared to be: Don’t bother to prepare and say nothing to offend anyone. She was a 15-watt bulb next to Sten’s ray of sunlight.