Candidate endorsements: Here's how the Gazette-Times is recommending you vote in some of the contested races in this year's election. This list will be updated as we continue to roll out endorsement editorials this week.

President: Barack Obama

U.S. Senate: Gordon Smith

U.S. House of Representatives, Fifth District: Kurt Schrader

Benton County Board of Commissioners, Position Three: Annabelle Jaramillo

The people we entrust as Oregon's Secretary of State, Attorney General and Treasurer have highly technical jobs that require specialized knowledge and experience. We're hiring executives as much as electing leaders when we choose the people to fill those positions.

It is fortunate that the candidates we're endorsing this year have the best of those qualities, and more.

For Secretary of State, we endorse state Sen. Kate Brown. A capable leader who has been a bright spot in Salem since she first began serving as state representative in 1991, Brown already has started an important task that needs to be finished by a Secretary of State: Addressing the flaws with Oregon's initiative system.

We have only to review the measures on the ballot this year - ineffective, costly and just plain dumb ones like Measure 61 - to know that the process of collecting signatures for ballot initiatives needs to be further improved. Brown's considerable legal and legislative experience would help her make changes that improve the initiative process without blunting its value as a tool of real democracy.

For State Treasurer, we believe that Allen Alley's resume sets him apart. It includes 30-plus years of financial experience, including international commerce and being the chairman of the board, director and founder of Pixelworks, Inc. of Tualatin. After only a few years, that company was named by Forbes as one of the nation's most successful system-on-chip IC manufacturers.

Although running as a Republican, Alley has served as deputy chief of staff to Gov. Ted Kulongoski, indicating he is agile at navigating Oregon's roiling political seas.

As for the job of state Attorney General: We are fortunate to have a clearly qualified favorite in John Kroger.

As a federal prosecutor, he helped to bring corrupt executives involved in the Enron scandal to justice. He's also successfully prosecuted assassins working for organized crime. In Oregon, he has vowed to go after top-level methamphetamine dealers, and we think he'd do just that here.

Frankly there is no close second. Although we delve into the candidates a bit more than what is provided in the Oregon Voters Pamphlet, in this case we are comfortable in joining the Oregon State Police Association, Oregon Chiefs of Police for Safer Communities and Crime Victims United in supporting Kroger for Oregon's attorney general.