Endorsement: Daily Herald recommends neither Schakowsky nor Elleson in 9th Congressional District

Both of the candidates running in the 9th Congressional District are likable and earnest, each dedicated to improving people's lives.

Jan Schakowsky of Evanston is completing her 20th year in the U.S. House, and she brings great passion to her work and does her homework on issues such as health care, clean water and foreign policy.

John Elleson of Arlington Heights is a Christian pastor who actively ministers with great empathy and devotion to a flock with diverse ethnic and socio-economic backgrounds. That devotion took him recently to Rogers Park where he prayed over the body of a murder victim who had been senselessly shot on the street.

As we said, they're both likable and service-oriented people, and once the election concludes, we suspect they'll likely strike up a cordial working relationship with each other.

But their politics couldn't be farther apart.

Schakowsky is one of the most liberal members of Congress, so reflexively to the left that she got herself arrested on charges of trespassing recently while protesting wages at McDonald's headquarters.

Elleson is far enough to the right that he's bought into the disinformation campaign that has sought to undermine the Robert Mueller investigation and questions Attorney General Jeff Sessions' decision to recuse himself from that probe.

The 9th - taking in parts of Chicago and the North Shore before swinging west to parts of Des Plaines, Mount Prospect and Arlington Heights - is a district gerrymandered to strongly favor the Democrats, and Schakowsky has never garnered less than 66.1 percent of the vote. In the year of an expected Blue Wave, she's likely to win in a landslide again.

But voters deserve a better choice. In these increasingly partisan times, the nation needs more unifying voices. The voters deserve a candidate with more moderate views.

We like them both personally. But we endorse neither.