Mark the date: Wednesday, October 8, twelve days before the start of Early Voting and 27 days before Election Day, the Houston Chronicle made its first endorsement for November, going (as I predicted they would) with incumbent Chief Justice of the State Supreme Court Wallace Jefferson. All I can say is that at this rate, they'll be done just in time to start making endorsements for the 2009 municipal elections. So, um, Go Chron!

(Actually, looking at the sample ballot, there's 105 races, of which nine are uncontested, not counting various ballot propositions, MUD elections, and non-Houston ISD and municipal races. If the Chron does one endorsement in a contested race per day from here, they'll finish up on Sunday, January 11, 2009. To get every race in before the start of Early Voting, they'll need to average eight per day between now and the 20th; just to get everything done by Election Day means doing a bit less than four per day. Now you know why I harp on this all the time.)