One of the things that struck us when we spoke with Robin Brown and Sara Gelser, the candidates seeking election to Oregon House District 16, was the many similarities between the two.

Both young mothers, they each are well-educated, eloquent and intelligent. Both have a strong grasp of the issues.

In their meetings with the Gazette-Times editorial board, both stuck to such issues as education and tax reform and offered their well-considered solutions. Not only did they avoid negative comments, but each also spontaneously mentioned having regard for the other.

After meeting with both, however, our endorsement goes to Gelser. Not only is she more familiar with and experienced in the issues, but she also is a known quantity.

Under trying circumstances, she stepped gracefully into the House seat vacated last year by Kelley Wirth, who resigned amid controversy and scandal. Since then, Gelser has been an accessible and accountable leader, ably dividing her time between the Corvallis School Board and her interim legislative duties.

Although Brown does not have our endorsement for election next month, we still encourage her to pursue local office; to seek another leadership capacity when we knew her better.

And perhaps she will have learned then from a few missteps she has made in this campaign. For example, when the Gazette-Times editorial board asked her how she specifically would “find” all of this extra money for school funding, she based some of her answers on erroneous facts, namely that there were more administrators in the Philomath School District now than there were in past years. It’s not true.

When pressed on the issue, Brown said only that her statement is what she believed at the time to be true.

Brown exhibited the same attitude in response to questions about a campaign mailer she sent to voters this week that Gelser said distorted her responses to a candidate survey sponsored by Project Vote Smart.

Specifically, the mailer said that Gelser “does not support teen sexual abstinence education ...”

Gelser cried foul, noting that the survey does indicate her support — in so many words — for such education.

Contacted on Wednesday, Brown said she authorized the mailer but acknowledged that it contained errors.

Brown said that she hadn’t read Gelser’s statement noting support for teen abstinence education but had only noticed that Gelser hadn’t checked a box indicating such support, and thus she missed Gelser’s intent.

By the way, Brown has not filled in the survey herself, thus denying voters insights into her stance on a broad range of issues.

More troubling to us was that under the heading, “What Are Democrats Saying about Sara?”, the mailer included three anonymous statements critical of Gelser, erroneously citing the source as “OregonBlue.com.”

Kari Chisholm, who describes himself as “the guy behind BlueOregon.com,” the Democratic Web site where the statements were posted, noted that one came from someone who signed it only as “Another Benton Democrat” and the final two were signed only as “Ask Questions First.”

Brown said there was nothing wrong with citing anonymous blog postings because there were plenty of people who did sign, and they appeared to be Democrats.

That statement is mind-boggling.

Brown said she hadn’t meant the mailer as an attack. Voters who see it can make their own judgement.

The incident confirms our misgivings regarding Brown’s readiness to enter the political fray. We still see strong leadership potential in Brown, but she has stumbled this time out. We hope she learns from these

miscues.

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