Down-ballot races

It was another strange week in the political arena.

Ted Cruz, although then a distant second in the Republican race, named Carly Fiorino as his running mate and introduced her as the future vice president of the United States.

It was a moment for serious policy discussion. Instead, she suddenly broke out in song, singing a little tribute to the Cruz family.

This week Trump accused Cruz's father of somehow being linked with Lee Harvey Oswald and somehow being involved in the assassination of President Kennedy. His accusations are based on a National Inquirer article.

Then, Hillary Clinton traveled to Appalachia to recover from statements she made earlier about ending thousands of coal miner jobs with renewable energy. Her timing was as bad as Cruz's talking about New York values before campaigning in that state.

Also, this week John Kasich was virtually invisible, except for photos of him stuffing food in his mouth. He is currently fourth in a two-man race.

Then, a bombshell hit in Indiana Tuesday. Trump took the state, swamping Cruz who quickly dropped out of the race.

Trump is now the presumptive nominee for the Republicans.

Bernie Sanders also took Indiana, beating Clinton. Still a long shot, he claims a “narrow path” still exists to his party’s nomination.

In all the post-Indiana primary discussion, John Kasich is not even mentioned. His effort, along with Cruz, to stop Trump has not even earned a footnote.

If the pundits are correct, the race for the White House is down to Trump and Clinton, despite these two having the highest unfavorable ratings in the campaign. Reportedly, they have the highest unfavorable ratings of any presidential candidates ever.

With Trump’s decisive win and Cruz’s departure and Clinton’s substantial lead in delegates, some voters are pondering what to do next. Some will not vote, they say. Some will try to unify their party, if only for the sake of the down-ballot races for other important offices.

As a result, these other races may take on greater significance. These offices represent the unbridled partisanship that has led to such dissatisfaction and anger with government.

If this is the year for political upheaval, it might as well include the Congress, where most problems have been perpetuated.

A few reasonable centrists could save us all.

Gordon Forgey

Publisher