This isn’t any better…
There’s a lot of laughing and giggling and guffawing bout the utter failure of Congressman Thad McCotter. Since it was discovered that almost 90% of the signatures he turned in to get on the August primary ballot were invalid, he has now dropped out of the race and won’t be running a write-in campaign.
How bad was it? Check this out:
The petitions revealed widespread photocopying to double and in some cases triple the number signatures, altered tracking numbers and apparent copying and pasting of past signatures. The level of doctoring was “unheard of” by the state elections chief and sent Republican leadership scrambling for ways to hold onto a seat that was considered safe for the GOP.
I don’t know who he hired to collect the signatures to get him on the ballot but it looks very much to me like he got punk’d.
Unfortunately, the guy who did make the ballot, reindeer farmer Kerry Bentivolio, is as bad or worse than McCotter. The libertarian forums are lit up with the “breaking awesome news” about Bentivolio’s candidacy. He’s also the darling of many tea party websites, all of whom are equally giddy at his sudden ascent to the top of the Republican primary ticket.
Bentivolio may be getting a run for his money, though. Paul Welday, former chief of staff of U.S. Rep. Joe Knollenberg is considering a write-in campaign. Sen. Loren Bennett from Canton Township has already launched one.
This is a tough district for Democrats due to Republican redistricting. However, Dr. Syed Taj is giving it a go and will face a LarouchePAC candidate, Bill Roberts, who, if he adheres to the Larouche line of thinking, thinks President Obama is as bad as Hitler.
And that, kids, is your MI-11 round-up. You can’t say politics in Michigan isn’t interesting, eh?
[McCotter image credit: Gage Skidmore | Flickr, Bentivolio image credit: official campaign website]
