LA Times Endorses Republican Steve Cooley for Attorney General

It wasn't an easy decision, but the LA Times today endorsed L.A. County's Republican District Attorney Steve Cooley over San Francisco's Democratic D.A. Kamala Harris. Why? It's not his stance on social issues like gay marriage, but he's a centrist who can manage:

One of the biggest troubles facing the state of California in recent years has been the dissolution of the political center and, with it, the ability to make the compromises that allow government to function. As a Republican, Cooley has defied his party's orthodoxy time and again. He is the rare politician in California today who genuinely is drawn to the center and who takes risks to remain there. That has earned him our regard.

It is true that we disagree with Cooley on some of the leading issues of the day. He has declined to support same-sex marriage; history will favor it. He has suggested that he might join a constitutional challenge to the new federal healthcare reform law; that was crass politics, and he knows it. He supports the death penalty, as do many Californians; someday, that brutal expression of state power will seem a barbaric relic...

... the next four years require most of all in the office is strong, capable, nonpartisan, professional supervision. Steve Cooley has delivered it to Los Angeles County. He is what the state needs now.

Both candidates participated in their only debate yesterday.