We’re suprised to find this is one of the more tepid endorsements we’re making in this election.

Back in May, emergency room doctor Sharon Meieran was a bright spot in the relatively crowded field to take over County Commissioner Jules Bailey’s seat.

Meieran’s medical experience meant she understood holes in the social safety net better than other candidates. She’d sat at the often-frustrating frontlines of reform as a member of the lapsed board that tried to help the city comply with a federal settlement over police abuses. And she is a proven champion of women’s reproductive rights.

If Meieran was also a bit hazy on the specifics of county governance, well, that was only to be expected. She’d learn in time.

Except, in sitting down again with Meieran and her runoff opponent, county employee Eric Zimmerman, we weren’t entirely convinced she’d learned all that much. Time and again, Meieran offered hazy or non-committal answers on questions revolving around housing and homelessness, which she says is the top issue facing the county.

Meieran might be for a large homeless shelter at the vacant Wapato facility in North Portland—she’s not sure. She could support rent control locally, but she needs to know more. She didn’t appear to have an informed take about a much-discussed homeless campus proposed at Northwest Portland’s Terminal 1 either, though the county’s taking on a larger role than ever in addressing homelessness.

All of which is to say she differs a great deal from Zimmerman, who has spent years as chief of staff to departing County Commissioner Diane McKeel. Not only does Zimmerman understand the ins and outs of county process, he’s taking strong positions, and rightly calling out Meieran for being wishy-washy.

He’d likely have our support—if we could bring ourselves to agree with more of those positions.

Zimmerman’s made the Wapato question a central point of this general election. He’s lumping himself in with McKeel and Commissioner Loretta Smith as a vocal booster for opening the never-used jail as a large-scale shelter. In doing so, Zimmerman says he’s the only candidate presenting a path to shelter all of Portland’s homeless.

But opponents voice legitimate concerns about Wapato’s location and the issues with sheltering a huge amount of people in one space. Zimmerman, when pressed, acknowledges that many homeless services agencies and advocates have concerns about such an approach, and that there’s no telling if people would choose to go there. Given the power, it appears he’d disregard those concerns.

Some other stances: Zimmerman has opposed letting the county have even the option to enact rent controls in the past (he says he’s since changed his mind), defended the 48-hour rule that gives cops two days after shooting someone to speak with internal investigators (it was just scrapped), and doesn’t support the effort to enact campaign finance limits in Multnomah County (he likes the idea, not the specific proposal).

Zimmerman’s a confident, likeable candidate, and alone, none of these stances would be a deal-breaker. Combined, they give us pause.

So we’re left where we were in May: Optimistic that Meieran’s ample background has prepared her to lead in a county government that has a great deal of sway over social services. And, yes, similar to our endorsement of Chloe Eudaly, we’re optimistic she’ll figure out the specifics as she goes.

Read the rest of our endorsements here.