My husband's political opponent on his race for School Board (School Board!), a solid Republican until a few days ago, has now turned coats and joined the Democratic party. Of course, he realizes that in a city with a strong Democratic majority, his relationship with the Republican party is unlikely to win him any votes. So, in the name of political expediency, he switches parties.
That, in itself, amuses me. It's an act of desperation that I predicted would happen. It's a pity, because even though I know the man is only running to give another School Board member a hold over the Board, he seemed like a nice guy. He may not realize just how unethical his behavior is - just like he didn't seem to realize that telling me how attractive he finds women to be, was inappropriate if not outright sexist.
But for some reason I am bothered by the fact that his campaign manager has allowed him (encouraged him?) to perform such an obvious trick. Forget how laughable and counterproductive it's likely to be for his candidate (a turncoat Republican surely sounds worse than a registered Republican), just how unethical is this? Of course, one expects campaign managers to be somewhat unethical, but to that extent? I'm frankly disgusted. OK, maybe not too disgusted, as I expected it, but sad that this is playing out just like I thought.
My next thought is that they're going to start playing dirty, a negative campaign. We'll see - but mark my words. They have nothing going for them (as the candidate has no interest in the school system) so mudslinging makes sense. Of course, that's what won Ellen the election :)