D.C.’s primary elections are less than a week away, this coming Tuesday, Sept. 9. By now you should have received your sample primary ballot, and, if you’re a registered Democrat, are likely still trying to determine exactly what all those Democratic Party slates are — stay tuned to DCist for plenty more primary election countdown posts to help you sift through it all in the coming days.

The big news on the local primaries front this morning is on the Republican ballot, however, as challenger Patrick Mara continues to gain big endorsements in his bid to unseat At-Large Council member Carol Schwartz. The Washington Post published its endorsements in the D.C. Council primaries today, and the newspaper gave the nod to Mara. Here’s what the paper had to say about dropping its support for Schwartz

Unrelentingly negative, Ms. Schwartz opposed no-smoking laws, open-meeting reform and, most notably, the mayoral takeover of the schools. No more urgent issue faces the District than the improvement of its public schools, and as much as we salute Ms. Schwartz’s past contributions to the city, we fear the consequences of her continued presence on the council.

There are other hopefuls looking to topple incumbents on the D.C. Council this year (Cary Silverman in Ward 2, and a handful of names in Wards 4, 7 and 8), but none of them have proved to be as much of a horse race as this Republican At-large contest. Mara has also picked up endorsements from several key business groups, like the D.C. Chamber of Commerce and and the Greater Washington Board of Trade, while Schwartz has continued to enjoy the support of many key neighborhood groups as well as the D.C. GOP establishment. It’s kind of a shame that since only registered Republicans may vote in this primary, the most interesting Council race this year is also the one that the fewest District residents will get to decide.

Apart from Mara, the only other Council incumbent not to get an endorsement from the Washington Post was Ward 8 Council member and former mayor Marion Barry. In a much, much less strongly worded rebuke, the paper just says “a better choice” would be Charles Wilson, a consultant and president of the Historic Anacostia Block Association. The Post acknowledges that Barry appears to have a lock on re-election, however.