Index: modules/contact/contact.pages.inc
===================================================================
RCS file: /cvs/drupal/drupal/modules/contact/contact.pages.inc,v
retrieving revision 1.4
diff -u -p -r1.4 contact.pages.inc
--- modules/contact/contact.pages.inc	2 Oct 2007 16:03:17 -0000	1.4
+++ modules/contact/contact.pages.inc	8 Dec 2007 18:32:33 -0000
@@ -60,7 +60,9 @@ function contact_mail_page() {
       // If there is more than one category available and no default category has been selected,
       // prepend a default placeholder value.
       if (!isset($default_category)) {
-        $categories = array(t('--')) + $categories;
+        $placeholder = t('--');
+        $categories = array($placeholder) + $categories;
+        $default_category = $placeholder;
       }
       $form['cid'] = array('#type' => 'select',
         '#title' => t('Category'),