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Today The Tribune completes its endorsements in the Nov. 7 general election.

U.S. House District 1

Patricia Madrid, Democrat

Neither candidate in this bombastically negative race could earn our unqualified support. Although both have admirable records of service in public office - certainly better than their acidic, cynical advertisements would have you believe - each also lays claim to occasional stumbles and shortcomings.

Admittedly, Patricia Madrid is not our ideal candidate for the post, but she earns our support largely because of the incumbent Republican's continued backing of a war we should not have started and have no clear means of ending.

The fate of the war in Iraq weighs heavily on many voters in this election cycle, Madrid included. While not embracing the "cut-and-run" strategy her critics have charged her with holding, she has also denounced "stay the course," rightly noting that it simply isn't working.

Madrid vows to work out a responsible exit plan - if, indeed, such a thing is possible. She would also vote for reductions in military spending as that exit is enacted and crack down on corruption and war profiteering.

That stands in contrast to U.S. Rep. Heather Wilson, who continues to support the war effort and the decisions of commanders on the ground - the officials least likely to recommend anything but a strong offensive.

Clearly, the war is the central issue in this election cycle, and probably for the next several years. Madrid offers at least the hope of new and better ideas that might allow America to exit with honor. Given the track record of the Bush administration, and Wilson's support of it, "stay the course" is not a viable option. Not for the long run.

Unlike Wilson, Madrid supports reconsidering portions of the Patriot Act that impinge on civil liberties, and she questions the Bush administration's access to warrantless wiretaps.

These are matters of grave importance in a post-9/11 world. After that tragedy, our nation lost an opportunity to unify around a common goal - repairing our wounds and embarking on a diplomatic effort to win new partners in the world, alliances that would have served us well in combating terrorism. We could have scaled back tax cuts to finance those efforts, and a grieving America would likely have cheered the tighter belt in light of its ultimate goal.

Instead, our budgets - and the accompanying debt - have billowed nearly beyond control. Our reputation as citizens of the world has suffered. And the fine men and women in our military branches have endured repeated deployments to a country still so unstable that civil war seems inevitable.

For eight years, Madrid has capably led the state's Attorney General's Office - albeit with a disappointing lack of early investigations into corruption in the state Treasurer's Office. Despite that failing, she took on illegal tribal casinos, prosecuted the chairman of her own party and cast a skeptical eye on some of Gov. Bill Richardson's initiatives.

Throughout this campaign, her unwillingness to engage in a public conversation about congressional issues - be it in formal debates, one-on-one interviews or casual forums - has left us anywhere from frustrated to enraged. The TV smear tactics of both candidates rob voters of the critical information they need to determine who will represent them.

The first part of being a public servant is to be . . . public.

That said, Madrid promises to vote for an increase in the minimum wage, to revisit the standards by which No Child Left Behind grades schools' progress, to rescind the administration's tax cuts to the wealthy and to completely overhaul Medicare Part D.

Those are tall orders for anyone in Congress, much less a freshman, but they are stances we can join her in supporting. We don't live in the best of all possible worlds, but we can take a step in the right direction.