MS-SEN: Even More Ballot Shenanigans
I wrote yesterday about the breathtaking attempts to fix an election in Mississippi by hiding the Senate race on the ballot in an effort to discourage voters. (See Republicans Acting Like Peronists — Or Maybe Chavezites.)
This ruse is so breathtakingly illegal in a state whose election statute requires the federal elections to come first — in the clearest possible terms — that the attempt seems destined to fail in court (it's currently enjoined pending a hearing).
But that has not stopped the desperate Republicans, fearing their party's brand: the latest wheeze is to remove party affiliations from the candidates in the Senate race (just the Senate race, not all of them). And the law appears to be silent on this tactic, so they might get away with it.
I think that the pig that Obama was referring to last week is actually Haley Barbour.
The removal of names from the ballot is reminiscent of the tactics that Republicans are using in Washington to disassociate themselves from the party brand. Our sleazebag Republican gubernatorial candidate has put himself on the ballot as the “G.O.P. Party” candidate, and other downballot candidates, particularly in western Washington, have come up with similarly bogus labels to run under.