It's a no-brainer.

Steve Marcus has paid dues upon dues over the past two years as the second banana in the RIRA administration of Matthew Katz. He's in synch with the policies that work toward a stronger voice for residents in this bastion of non-democracy where all the important decisions are made by appointees of the Governor.

His statement of candidacy is here.

John Kerry for America

Another no-brainer.

In living memory, there has been no Presidency so riven with such a snarl of sad misjudgments as that we have now.

John Kerry's credentials make him an outstanding candidate to right the Ship of State. But more than anything, this nation must free itself from the rat's-nest of Cheney-Bush policy that has the current administration tangled in the blistering bind of inability to admit any error while errors multiply upon errors.

Backtracking is out of the question when you can't admit a mis-step. Cheney's policies leave George Bush with nothing to do except plunge deeper into a demonstration of national madness that has been characterized as "mad cowboy disease." To wit:

. Be so eager to do the Old Man (Bush, Sr., that is) one better that you deliberately confuse Al Qaeda with Iraq and Osama bin Laden with Saddam Hussein, drop the ball in Afghanistan, and then...

. Invade Iraq on a premature conclusion, based on deliberately warped intelligence findings, that Saddam Hussein has a stockpile of weapons of mass destruction.

. Claim, falsely, that oil revenue will pay for reconstruction. (After all, Texas oil interests will profit nicely from handling all that crude.)

. Send our troops to war as an anemic force so overextended that it has too little power to keep insurgents from looting stockpiles of high explosives. (Claim, of course, that we are safer today after creating the perfect recruitment tool for Al Qaeda, and after allowing the makings of terribly destructive weapons to fall into their hands.)

. Handle the over-eager run-up to war, and the diplomacy, so badly that allies quite justifiably decline to help. (But claim help from many countries that bring little to the table other than their presence on a list.)

. Hand the job of reconstruction to Halliburton.

. Sacrifice lives. Too many lives. For a mistake that can't be acknowledged.

. Spend hundreds of billions patching up Iraq while leaving America's borders and ports porous to terrorists.

The Cheney-Rumsfeld era must end. Their policies, inarticulately defended with preposterous claims (Freedom is on the March?) by a President whose own Secretary of State fades to the background to avoid association with Administration blunders - those policies, too, must go. And with them, George W. Bush (that guy, nearly incidental, who occupies the White House) must go.

It's hard to imagine anyone being undecided about this Administration and this election - and that's without touching on education, health care, economic policy, Social Security, reproductive rights, tax policies, science policy, and so much more.

John Kerry will bring to the Presidency the maturity, seasoning, and discipline that W never had and is unlikely ever to acquire. Kerry is unlikely to believe or claim he's a messenger from God, and more likely to be rationally thoughtful in considering policy and strategic alternatives brought to him.

There is a belief, of course, that New York State is in the bag for Kerry. Even so, an overwhelming popular vote can be an important reinforcement of an Electoral College victory. So please, vote on Tuesday. And between now and Tuesday, please pick up the phone and call friends in the swing states. In the end, just a few votes may decide this contest, and you may be able to say you insured some of the votes that made it happen.

Dick Lutz