But endorsements have always struck me as holier-than-thou podiums we newspapers climb atop because we think we know what you need. Well, even if candidates traipse through our conference rooms to state their cases and give us better access than commoners get, we don't.

So why then am I going to give you the names of two people I think deserve support on Tuesday?

For one thing, my only hard-and-fast political rule has nothing to do with endorsements. (It's "Continually browbeat anybody fighting for a smoking ban that'll decimate our taprooms.") And for the other thing, a pair of wannabe politicos has really gotten shafted in recent weeks. So shafted, in fact, that their names won't even appear on the ballot; they're left to depend on people writing them in.

Yes, Marie deYoung and Emilio Vazquez need all the help they can get.

DeYoung, you may recall from a cover story I wrote last July, is the Lansdowne woman who dedicated the past couple years of her life to making sure Americans realize just how much money Halliburton extravagantly fritters away over in Iraq.

And Vazquez, you may recall from a cover story I wrote two months earlier, is a longtime Hunting Park resident who, in the name of sprucing up his neglected neighborhood, unsuccessfully challenged the Democratic party machine in a 2004 race against absentee state Rep. Bill Rieger.

These two state-rep candidates—deYoung in the 163rd District and Vazquez in the 179th—couldn't be any more different. DeYoung is an Army veteran and former minister and educator who travels to Washington, D.C., regularly to lobby lawmakers, and seemingly appears in every news account of Halliburton abuses. Vazquez, who writes tickets for the Philadelphia Parking Authority, makes his mark by cleaning up vacant lots in his community.

But just after the March deadline for filing petitions, their stories merged when their opponents found discrepancies in their paperwork and challenged the validity of their candidacies. Both explained themselves in court, but lost their appeals. So next week, when voters in their respective areas go to vote, deYoung and Vazquez are depending on them to take the extra voting-booth step of writing in the candidate's name.

If I may speak to the voters of the 163rd and 179th for just a moment: Please do so.

Let's start with deYoung, a political novice who wants to change education and transportation funding and revamp the tax code. Her opponent is state Rep. Nick Micozzie, who, for the past 28 years, has represented the district that encompasses Lansdowne, Clifton Heights and Alden along with parts of Darby, Ridley and Upper Darby townships.

Now, I'm not saying Micozzie has neglected his constituents, or that he's beholden to the insurance companies and trial attorneys that bought into his war chest. (That's deYoung's mantra.)

What I do know is this: Rather than facing a focused, progressive candidate, he sicced a GOP-powerhouse law firm on her. Her sin? Even after election officials told her it was fine to do so, she neglected to list the source of a $2,000 check that she'd received for "consulting" with Paul Scoles' campaign against U.S. Rep. Curt "I Know Where Osama Is" Weldon. That petty, technicalities-driven move cements Micozzie as part of an establishment that's had ample opportunity to do right by the people, but didn't. So, folks in the Fightin' 163rd, give deYoung the 300 write-in votes she needs to be able to challenge, and hopefully defeat, Micozzie in November.

Vazquez, too, was tossed off the ballot for failing to list a source of income. (He didn't list his PPA job.)

The dynamic here, however, is different, as a political newcomer—25-year-old Tony Payton—had him tossed. Payton is part of that new crop of idealistic Dems who want to shake up their party's power structure. As the only person on the ballot, he does have some great ideas for the district and he's a heck of a nice guy who should be given the opportunity to make Philadelphia a better place, someday, but, as hard as it is for me to say, not Tuesday. (Sorry, I just think he should've welcomed the Vazquez challenge, but here's hoping Payton makes a fresh-blood run at Council in 2007.) Even though party chairman Bob Brady rallied support for him last week, Vazquez shouldn't be dismissed as a party shill. He was an outsider when he mocked Rieger's record a couple years back, and hasn't lost his sole platform focus of making his a better place to live.

When someone's heart is in the right place, like deYoung's and Vazquez's are, it's your civic duty to give them a chance to make a difference. Even if it means a couple extra minutes in the voting booth.