More than any other time in my life, mailboxes have been peppered with outrageous claims about candidates.
Perhaps the most extreme example of the outrageous campaigning is calling Speaker Albert Sommers a Chinese Communist.
No combination of words in the English language is a stupider phrase – and there are some pretty stupid phrases in the English language.
One can say a lot of things about Albert. He is a brilliant scholar. He is an electrical engineer. He is a sophisticated rancher. He is a thoughtful leader. He makes tough decisions and bears the consequences of those decisions.
His reputation as a great leader precedes him. That is why he was selected to the Board of Directors of the State Legislative Leaders Foundation (SLLF).
The SLLF is an organization that allows legislative leaders to share their experiences – both good and bad – with leaders from other states. It is a high-level organization aimed and increasing the quality of legislature throughout the nation.
The SLLF membership is exclusive in an of itself. SLLF is comprised of the top 2 elected officials from each part in each legislative body in the United States. Speakers of the House, Majority and Minority Floor Leaders are eligible for membership. About 200 people, nationwide, are eligible for membership.
To be selected for the board of this organization, one has to be a leader among leaders. Albert earned that award.
So, instead of praising Albert on his talent as a leader, and his ability to rise to the top of leaders throughout the United States, bonehead political operatives try to minimize his abilities by making up some falsehoods about Albert being a ChiCom.
These attack ads have gone beyond irritating, to the absurd and now to the mildly humorous.
To save folks the trouble of thinking up slanderous campaign slogans to be used against one’s opponents, the following suggestions are offered for future campaigns. All one will have to do is fill in the blank.
1. Legislator X was kidnapped in the middle of the night by aliens flying a maroon-colored UFO, and taken to their planet, where Legislator X was indoctrinated with Alien ideas about advanced mathematics, nuclear energy and baking cookies. These ideas will pollute our children and turn them into sex robots. Therefore, we should remove all books about UFOs from our libraries.
2. Legislator Y has been brain washed by Russians who have infiltrated his video games. Upon receiving the secret code phrase "Why don't you pass the time by playing a little solitaire?" Legislator Y will propose gun control legislation so that the Russians can invade the United States just like in the movie Red Dawn.
3. Legislator Z goes into his house and shuts his doors and windows at night. He must be cooking drugs, counterfeiting money, or making porno films because no one sees him out on the streets at night. What does Legislator Z have to hide?
Share your suggestions at the email address below. The funniest ones (in this author’s sole discretion and subject to the editorial policy of CSD) will be included in a future column.
Hopefully, these ridiculous suggestions, and ones you offer, can be used in future elections, instead of political operatives having to create new an even more silly campaign slander.
Tom Lubnau served in the Wyoming Legislature from 2005 - 2015 and is a former Speaker of the House.
He can be reached at: YourInputAppreciated@gmail.com
