There's not much of a race in Senate district 25, where longtime legislator Sen. Lisa Marrache, a physician, is being challenged (but only barely) by Republican businessman Brent Hutchins.

Hutchins, a 30-year employee of Marden's, is in favor of creating jobs, strengthening the economy and reducing our energy burden. Those are all good things, but he's likely to be steamrolled by the Democratic machine in the district, of which Marrache is an increasingly prominent member.

As a physician, Marrache has expertise in health care and has used it to good effect in the Statehouse. She has doggedly pursued changes to state reimbursement policies, for example, that made it difficult for those needing long-term care to continue living in the facilities they'd grown accustomed to. When Marrache is doing health-care policy, she's good at what she does.

She's less strong as the Senate chairman of the Legal and Veterans Affairs committee, where her lack of expertise has combined with the opposition of powerful Senate Democrats who are her patrons to block passage of necessary legislative ethics reform.

The Morning Sentinel endorses Lisa Marrache for re-election to the Senate. We do so in the hope that she will bring the same level of commitment to the public interest on the Legal and Veterans Affairs committee -- if she continues as Senate chairman -- that she does on health-care issues.