I like to make a game of predicting Seattle Times editorial board endorsements. I'm almost never wrong. Because they are so fucking predictable. But every once in a while they surprise me:

Nathan Schlicher, a Democrat from Gig Harbor, is the better choice for the 26th Legislative District Senate race to replace Derek Kilmer, who was elected to Congress.

[...] His opponent, Rep. Jan Angel, R-Port Orchard, has a solid résumé as a businesswoman, former Kitsap County commissioner and state representative. But she lacks Schlicher’s moderate instincts. If elected, Angel’s conservative ideology might empower the unhelpful, far-right fringe of the Senate Republican caucus.

It is hard to overstate the importance of this special election. An Angel win in November would not only help cement the Republicans' obstructionist control of the state senate, it would also make it all the more difficult for Democrats to win back control in 2014. Under normal circumstances an Angel endorsement would have been a no-brainer for a Republican-leaning ed board that has consistently railed against the dangers of unchallenged Democratic hegemony in Olympia. But these aren't normal circumstances.

The Republican Party has become so pathologically dysfunctional that it's even beginning to lose the Seattle Times.