Carpetbaggers ... Am I the Pot Calling the Kettle Black?

In today's Garrison Center column, I discuss Lauren Boebert's change of election venue and note that she's a "carpetbagger."

To which anyone who's followed my own career in electoral politics might respond "aren't you?"

And the answer is "sort of."

In the past, in Missouri, both I and my significant other have run for Congress in districts where we didn't live.

The difference between Boebert and the two of us is motive.

Boebert is switching districts because she thinks she might be able to get elected in a new district and thinks she probably won't get re-elected in the district that's elected her twice (last time by about 500 votes).

Tamara and I both switched districts to help our state Libertarian Party show the flag when it didn't have anyone in a particular district who wanted to run. Neither of us had any illusion that a win was likely, or even possible.

Tamara also ran for US Senate twice, both times to defeat really bad candidates in the party primary (once a neo-Nazi -- yes, a real one -- and the other time a convicted murderer) and to try to get the 2% in a statewide race that would preserve the party's "automatic" ballot access in Missouri (she succeeded once and failed once, but still got blamed for the Democrat losing on that second one, as she and the Green Party candidate combined to more than "beat the spread" between the Democrat and Republican).

I'm really glad to be -- probably permanently -- out of that whole game. Running for office is hard, at least if you do more than pay the filing fee and fill out some paperwork.