A prime example

Whew, that was close. The local state representative primary race came down to a prime number—11 votes, to be exact—separating the two vote seekers, Ben Mallicote and Tony Shipley.

http://www.timesnews.net/article/9049956/shipley-edges-mallicote-by-11-votes-in-primary

One had endorsement issues, while the other had anger management issues. One was difficult to be around, while the other got money from special interests, with major influencers lurking in the shadows. One was portrayed as "arrogant" and "out of touch", while the other promised to run a "positive" campaign.

Or maybe it was the other way around.

Either way, supporters on both sides felt strongly about the other, engendering a level of negative campaigning (and dollar flow) that's normally reserved for congressional or gubernatorial races.

The antipathy ended up leaving the average guy with the pick-up truck and a dog wondering why his persona had been co-opted as the key image for one candidate, a lawyer by day, in a Lamar-Alexander-Kafka-NRA-dog-god-no gun mash up.

The image dominated the front page of the local newspaper and almost every other piece of political junk mail to cross the stoop in the last week.

Combined with the negative campaigning, the image sent a double message. Instead of "I'm folksy" the message came across as "I'm folksy and mean".

Might have been less incongruous if it had been an image of the candidate in sports car with a pit bull.