Is It Tuesday Yet?

Campaign SIGNS566Here we are, in the waning days of Primary 2014. The final campaign mailers are arriving in your mailbox, full of stretched truths, mangled quotes, and outright lies. The candidates have gone to the press and social media to protest the onslaught of retarded rhetoric and theft of signs.

Being a creature of politics, I was asked to opine on the mudfest in Thursday’s edition of The Union, where I harkened back to the bad old days of NH2020, a land use initiative promoted by the so-called Gang of Four. (Supervisors Van Zant, Martin, Green and Conklin, who upset the applecart of Republican dominance in local politics for a few years.) Those were the salad days of my editorial cartooning years, when it was a challenge to pick out the dumbest event of the week to render with my poison pen. I pointed out that this new crop of candidates really can’t hold a candle to their predecessors when it comes to nasty and creepy.

My remarks drew a few jeers from the peanut gallery, which is to be expected. (One reader exclaimed, “Crabb’s on the Union editorial board? Hmm…I’ll just consider the source.”) Yeah, my hidden agenda for county dominance ruled by the Good Ol’ Boy Cartel and The Swift Newspaper Empire is well known to the imaginations of pipsqueak pundits and peevish politicos from Truckee to Timbuktoo. It goes with the territory.

So we will only have to hold our breath until next week, when the corpses of failed candidacies will be picked up by animal control officers. We can enjoy the summer until the next round begins in October. That’s when the real bloodletting will happen.

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11 Responses to Is It Tuesday Yet?

  1. Chris Peterson says:

    I’m sure there are those who will not be in the least surprised to hear that there’s something I don’t understand:
    If you’re a millionaire/billionaire, and you hope to buy special favors by bribing, (I mean contributing), to a government official… rather than waste your money on a primary where the winner is in doubt, why not wait until AFTER the election, and just buy the winner? Wouldn’t that be a more economically sound action?

    After all; if your motivation is to personally profit from your investment, (I mean your ability to influence political policy), and both sides have proven to be corrupt, (I mean non-partisan), to your bribes, (I mean your free speech rights), isn’t there less risk of a bad investment after the race, rather than before?

    • rlcrabb says:

      You fail to consider that elections are one of the few growth industries in the New Economy. These rich people are job creators. Without them, everyone would be fighting for the last fast food jobs.

  2. Brad Croul says:

    I don’t have a dog in this fight but I saw the PAC ad in The Union. The “quotes” looked to be bare-bones quotes stripped out of random conversations that render them essentially meaningless since there are no points of reference to the quotes.
    Sounds like someone was having fun running through the transcripts.
    I wonder what the challenger, Miller, will bring to the Board of Supes besides unanimous votes on pretty much everything? Lamphier is often the lone, contrarian vote on anything somewhat controversial (based on what little I have observed of the board meetings). That said, I know very little about Mr. Miller except that his “mad dog” PAC (that he has no control over, yeah right; I am sure he does not know anyone donating to or running that PAC) smacks of big money special interests (as all PACs do).

  3. San French says:

    “Crabb’s on the Union editorial board?”…Thank God! First time I’ve voted for while. I did it by mail. I truly am glad your in there RL to lend some sanity and a healthy dose of humor to the mix. And anyone who doesn’t think so is just a damn sourpuss.
    Tally-Ho!

  4. rlcrabb says:

    My former editor likes to point out to his readers what hopeless rubes we locals are when it comes to politics. He’s right. We can’t hold a candle to the sophisticated campaigns downwind of here…
    http://www.sfgate.com/politics/article/Mud-getting-slung-across-Bay-Area-ahead-of-5518024.php

    • Chris Peterson says:

      A cat can kill a mouse ten feet away, and you’ll hardly hear a thing, but when a cat fights another cat, it’s mostly nothing but noise.

      I couldn’t help but notice that a comparison was made to House of Cards meets McDonalds. Perhaps it’s the mention of food that grabbed Jabba the ex ed’s attention. At any rate, it’s the same old story; those with inflated egos always mistake our displeasure for ignorance.

  5. OK Crabb! Where is my sign? What did you do with it!

  6. Barry Pruett says:

    Thanks for the East Bay article…we have a pretty tame election going on in sleepy Nevada County. For the most part, every “negative” campaign issue is directly related to an incumbents record. I do not see this as negative campaigning. Taking pictures of a Senator’s wife who as severe dementia?! Welcome to Mississippi!

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