Although they're not shy about showing who their pet candidates are, the folks over at Willamette Week have done us all a service by filming and then posting on the internet their group interviews of candidates for various statewide and local offices, ostensibly in preparation for their making their formal endorsements.

The two videos that have interested us the most are the two for the seriously contested Portland City Council races: (1) the donnybrook for Sam the Tram's old seat, featuring Lewis, Fritz, Bissonnette, Branam, Smith, and Fahey; and (2) Fish, Middaugh, Garren, Stewart, and Williams. You'll need well over an hour for each of these, but they're highly informative -- way more so than the few measly sound bites you're going to get on local television.

We just got done looking at the video for the Middaugh-Fish-Etc. race, which proves beyond a doubt that (a) Middaugh is Sten II, even down to the mannerisms and the little half-sneer; (b) WW isn't going to endorse Fish, and they may be out to get him at Candidates Gone Wild; and (c) previously unbeknownst to me, Fred Stewart is another dedicated Opie worshipper -- absolutely thinks that the Stenmeister walks on water. Perhaps most distressingly, when candidate Ed Garren tries to say anything honest about the mortgaging of the city's future for condo development, everybody else in the room shouts him down.

We're leaning toward Fish, but Garren now has a shot for our vote.

Anyway, we heartily recommend the videos, although viewers may need to try to filter out the selective snottiness of the questioners. Next up on our viewing schedule: Kroger and Macpherson.