There are certain candidates who may get overlooked on a full ballot or a bulging list of endorsements not because they'd be such bad choices but because they'd be such good ones. So the obvious picks may not even be mentioned in the run-up to the election. They tend to get lost in the glare of publicity the bad actors are sure to get once they're exposed.

So do we the spoiled people come to take quality for granted, with the result that even the conscientious voter may forget they're even in the race. While the worst stick in the public mind, like so much of the mud they throw at their worthier opponents. So before any more time passes, let us praise some of the best in both the Democratic and Republican primaries now upon us--early voting has already begun--as election day comes hurtling down toward us next Tuesday.

That day will be here and mercifully gone before many voters know it. But it could leave a painful hangover behind if the electorate overlooks the best on the ballot. To mention three of them:

Asa Hutchinson, a respected veteran of public service, has served with competence and conscience in a succession of federal offices that call for a combination of legal and political skills. He's been an undersecretary in the Department of Homeland Security and the Drug Enforcement Administration, both of which need all the conscience and competence they can get after some of the debacles they've been responsible for.

Asa Hutchinson's most memorable stint may have been as U.S. Attorney here in Arkansas, where he displayed exemplary patience and courage in a moment of crisis. That was when he waited out a bunch of gun-toting fanatics in North Arkansas, a siege that ended with no casualties. That episode stands out in stark and welcome contrast to the blunders committed by Janet Reno, Alberto Gonzales and Eric Holder when each served as attorney general of the United States.

To be more specific, Asa Hutchinson's quiet effectiveness in his moment of truth provided the most vivid and welcome contrast with (a) the bloody massacre at the Branch Davidian compound outside Waco, Texas, (b) the all too routine attitude our highest law-enforcement officials took toward torture in the War on Terror, and (c) the Fast and Furious scandal that did little but endanger the public's safety--and that of devoted lawmen.

In this primary, Mr. Hutchinson is opposed by a businessman who hasn't much of a record or talent for public service. Having come from private life, he needs to go back there after Tuesday. Of course Asa Hutchinson is the obvious choice for the Republican nomination for governor.

On the Democratic ballot, the obvious choice for governor is Mike Ross, who was one of the last blue-dog Democrats left in Congress, a moderate in a sea of kneejerk ideologues--even if he did play a part in Obamacare's being foisted on the American people. Otherwise he's modeled himself on Mike Beebe's prudent, even over-cautious, example as governor. Mike Ross is opposed in this race by an inveterate office-seeker who never becomes an officeholder, which is a tribute to voters' good sense. She's thoroughly earned her obscurity.

In the Republican race to succeed the embarrassing Martha Shoffner as state treasurer, a solid legislator named Duncan Baird is opposed by one Dennis Milligan--which is just about the only thing a conscientious voter needs to know to make up his mind in this contest. For the name Dennis Milligan will be found in the recent and maculate annals of state scandals--in connection with the kind of sleazy tactics the worst pols use. In this instance, Mr. Milligan was caught, and recorded, trying to bully his opponent into dropping out of the race. It all had something to do with an innocuous visit to the state Capitol, and the only relevant thing about it now was Dennis Milligan's low use of it. How anyone like that can promise to revive the integrity of the state treasurer's office after Martha Shoffner disgraced it is a mystery.

Whatever the Dennis Milligans of politics lack in integrity, they seem to make up for in nerve. Duncan Baird is the obvious choice in this Republican primary.

Let us be thankful there are still some good people in public life, since they can be assured only of being smeared by the low types in it.

Editorial on 05/14/2014