Electing a Republican in this one special election will end the supermajority

◼ Matt Dababneh and Susan Shelley for 45th Assembly District: Editorial endorsement - LA Daily News

The luxury of a primary election, such as the one Sept. 17 for the 45th state Assembly District, is the knowledge that there will almost certainly be a runoff.

The special election to replace Bob Blumenfield, who moved on the Los Angeles City Council this summer, has nearly a dozen candidates, many of them well qualified for the job, and no clear front-runner. Unless one of the 11 candidates manages to garner more than 50 percent of the vote, there will be two people — the top-two voter getters — advancing to a runoff. We hope that those two will be Matt Dababneh and Susan Shelley.

Political affiliations aside, these two are the best candidates: the smartest, most thoughtful, pragmatic, moderate and prepared. All the better is that one is a Democrat and the other a Republican....

(Susan Shelley’s) ...a socially liberal Republican, a California flavor of GOP. She’s pro-choice and pro-Prop. 13, for example, and a whipsmart constitutional scholar — author of three books on the topic — and a former TV writer (hey, this is L.A.). Shelley differs sharply from the two other Republican candidates in the race who embrace socially intolerant versions of conservatism that won’t get many votes in Los Angeles, let alone this solidly Democratic West Valley district. Anyone — Democrat or Republican — who is uncomfortable with the current Democratic lock in Sacramento will certainly want to look at Shelley because electing a Republican in this one special election will end the supermajority.