Three of five seats on the Port of Seattle Commission are contested. In support of a broad public interest rather than an industrial or ideological interest, we endorse John Creighton, Lloyd Hara and Patricia Davis.

The incumbent in Position 1, Lawrence Molloy, is finishing his first term. He is a "blue-green" candidate — pro-union and pro-environment. Toward those ends, he would have the Port require that all private-sector jobs that use Port property be family-wage, that drivers dropping off passengers at the airport pay a $1 toll, and that the Port's property-tax money, now used to subsidize marine terminals, be spent instead to promote the clean-energy industry. Port insiders portray him as a loose cannon. His principal opponent, downtown attorney John Creighton, doesn't know as much about the Port as Molloy does, but he is smart and can learn. Vote for Creighton.

The incumbent in Position 4, Pat Davis, has been on the job since the 1980s and takes a strong institutional view. Her principal opponent, Jack Jolley, attacks on so many fronts he stretches credulity. He's a former bond salesman and Microsoft treasury employee who is on solid ground on finance and tends to wing it on everything else. He, too, can learn, but there is little case for jettisoning the incumbent. She's smart, she has the background and she works well with commissioners and staff. Stick with Davis.

On Position 3, the open seat being vacated by Paige Miller, the principal candidates — those who have raised $50,000 or more, and are campaigning hard — are Richard Berkowitz, Peter Coates and Lloyd Hara.

Berkowitz, who is a lobbyist on federal issues for the U.S.-flag steamship companies, knows ocean shipping and waterfront issues. He is backed by waterfront business and maritime unions. He would be an asset to the Port commission on waterfront matters, but he also comes with institutional connections to an entire class of Port users. He would keep his job as a lobbyist for The Transportation Institute on national issues while taking on the new ($9,000 a year) job of representing King County taxpayers at the Port. There could be conflicts.

Coates would be an asset to the Port Commission on airport matters, particularly about security. But he also has conflicts. He is the spokesman for a group of unions that negotiate their pay and benefits with the Port. Virtually all his campaign money is from unions.

That leaves Hara, the retired former Seattle city treasurer. Hara speaks with the tone of authority — a manner politicians learn — but he has far less of it on waterfront and airport issues than his two principal opponents. Still, his job would be to represent citizens and taxpayers, and there Hara has the right priorities. He, too, can learn on the job.