Each of the candidates seeking the seat now held by retiring Sen. Karen Hale has his strengths. But it is the infusion of some independence and drive that is most needed on Utah's Capitol Hill.

That's why, in the view of The Salt Lake Tribune Editorial Board, the best choice for voters in Senate District 7 is Ross Romero, the Democrat, over Republican Bryce Jolly.

Romero, an attorney, was elected to the Utah House only two years ago, representing District 25. Jolley served a single term on the Salt Lake City Council, ending in 1999.

Both are local kids made good. Romero came home after graduating from the University of Michigan Law School and has thrown himself into numerous public service and business community activities. Jolley is the proprietor of some long-standing local family businesses, including Jolley's Pharmacy and Top Hat Video, and was a founder of the West of Lower Foothill Community Council.

Where Jolley's appeal falls apart is in his blatant promise to fit in with the powers that be in the Legislature rather than to stand up to them. The main plank of his platform is that, by electing an all-Democratic delegation to a predominately Republican Legislature, Salt Lake City's interests are not well served. That view is troublesome, to say the least.

It is true, as Jolley argues, that far too many legislative decisions are made in the closed Republican caucuses and only rubber-stamped in public later on. But his suggestion that city voters capitulate to that opaque and unbalanced situation not only strengthens an unhealthy balance of power but also takes far too parochial an approach to politics.

Romero pledges to speak truth to that unresponsive power, and not just for the interests of Salt Lake City. His program is to build public education, for its own sake and as an engine of economic development, open up government and help assimilate the state's growing minority population.

That's the kind of help that the whole state needs. Voters in District 7 can provide some of it by electing Ross Romero to the Utah Senate.

Senate District 7 covers eastern Salt Lake City, as far west as 700 East, reaches south along I-215 to include the eastern edge of Holladay and includes the northeast corner of Salt Lake County.