Everyone from the choir loft to the outhouse –plus 10 people at Hillside cemetery — knew exactly who the stodgy, predictable, imagination-challenged Chamber of Commerce directors were going to endorse in the City Council race.

Thomas Small, Daniel Lee, Meghan Sahli Wells and Jay Garocochea could have rewritten the Gettysburg Address, sung Dr. King’s “I Have a Dream” speech, improved on Tom Jefferson’s principles of government, outflashed Lady Gaga, and the blinders-wearing board would not have budged. Breathed. Or sneezed.

Grimly, they still would have voted a straight ticket for their guys, Goran Eriksson, Marcus Tiggs and Scott Wyant.

Their choices were fine, it must be said, even though they were tantamount to predicting last year’s weather.

But the snubbed persons deserved more than a sneeze.

Messrs. Small and Lee had strong outings – but their politics are wrong for the Chamber crowd.

At times in the past, Councilwoman Sahli Wells has made the angels sing with her progressive rhetoric. She did not seem inspired though yesterday. Which may be understandable since everyone knew the final score going in.

No one would have doubted Mr. Garocochea was a former police officer. Traffic and community safety concepts tiptoed into nearly all of his responses to the forum’s seven questions.

As a capper, the boringly written Chamber of Commerce press release was delayed for 24 hours. Who knows why?