Three months before Ohio's Congressional primaries take place, the Cleveland Plain Dealer has already made its endorsement in the 10th District Democratic race. It came just one day after news broke that the district's representative, long-shot Presidential candidate Dennis Kucinich, was planning to run for reelection. And for the second straight primary election, Kucinich was not the endorsee.

The paper endorsed Cleveland Councilman Joe Cimperman, though it remains to be seen if he can fare any better than Kucinich's 2006 opponent, Barbara Ferris, who took just 24% of the primary vote with the paper's endorsement. But unlike Ferris, Cimperman has been an elected official in Cleveland for a decade. Ferris and two others are also challenging Kucinch this year. But newspaper endorsements often come just before an election, so the timing of the Plain Dealer's editorial brings this election into a new light.

If articles over the past year describing the angst caused by Kucinich's constant traveling and presidential campaigning are any indication, it's possible voters of Cuyahoga County and Cleveland's West Side have finally had enough of their national candidate. While Kucinich and his wife have gotten national press coverage, Kucinich has been getting crushed at home.

An excerpt from the nondorsement:

"Here's the unvarnished truth: No matter how earnest he may be on the issues that obsess him, Kucinich doesn't get much done. Not even Democratic rule on Capitol Hill has changed that. When he regularly opposes his own party's leaders, when he can't even bring himself to vote for a simple resolution marking the anniversary of the 9/11 attacks, he marginalizes himself and, far more important, he marginalizes his district."

Cimperman still has to prove his campaign mettle, but the Plain Dealer's early endorsement of a six-term incumbent's challenger makes this race just a little more interesting to watch.

-- Kyle Trygstad