Today the Chron gives its most puzzling endorsement of the cycle. Not because Rep. Kevin Brady is an oddball choice for re-election - frankly, given what a nut Brady's opponent is, I'd be pushing the button for him if I lived in Montgomery County. What's odd about this is the timing of the endorsement - why not include Brady in with the Harris County Congress endorsements; surely it didn't take this much extra time to arrive at the decision to recommend him - as well as the choice to make a recommendation in this particular race. If the Chron is going to venture outside of Harris County - something they really ought to do, as both the Morning News and the Star Telegram endorse in races from multiple counties - then why pick this uninteresting and uncompetitive race (Brady got 69% against the same nutty opponent in 2004) instead of the much more compelling and potentially competitive race in CD14?

Maybe the Chron is going to pick a side between Shane Sklar and Rep. Ron Paul. Good for them if they do, but c'mon already. There's only three days of early voting left. The more they wait, the less it matters. I admit that how much it matters regardless is an open question, but the principle remains.

Finally, if the Chron is going to venture outside the Harris County borders, there are a number of hot races in Galveston and Fort Bend Counties in which they could endorse. Again, if they were going to do this they should have done it weeks ago, but better late than never. In the end, though, if CD08 is the only exclusively non-Harris County race in which the Chron makes a recommendation, then I will remain puzzled as to why they bothered. We'll see what happens.