That would be “Ethics Dunce,” “Incompetent Elected Official of the Week” and “Unethical Quote of the Month.” If I had an official “Asshole of the Month” designation, he’d have that wrapped up too.
The day before the Virginia elections, Democratic Virginia House of Delegates Member Chris Hurst and his girlfriend, Emily Frentress, were pulled over by a deputy who spotted them tampering with campaign signs at a polling location. (The 12th District incumbent was also cited for or driving with a suspended license and given a “driving while suspended notification.”) Here is his exchange with the officer as recorded by the officer’s bodycam:
Officer: “I think what you need to do after I deal with you here is go back and fix those signs. What do you think? You try to resort to doing this? Instead of doing a fair election? Chris, quit playing. Quit playing. Y’all are up there turning over signs at the polling area and you’re sitting here acting like you don’t know what’s going on?”
Hurst: “…Here’s what I would say. I would think that something that was a little hijinks and steam blowing off is exactly what everybody over on the other side of the mountain does and people all over this district do.”
Officer: “So you’re going to resort to that and represent us?”
Hurst: “I need you to just do your job here tonight and I’ll do mine. I have nothing more to say to you, officer. I’m sorry for actions that I may have done or my partner may have done, but I think you’re getting a little emotional here.”
Officer: “I’m not getting emotional at all, you’re supposed to be representing us. You’re supposed to be out here representing us and not out here acting like a school kid. How am I supposed to vote for you if you’re out here doing this?”
Hurst: “Were you planning on voting for me?”
Officer: “Well, that’s all up in the air now.”
Hurst: “I’m sorry if I lost your support, sir.”
Later, Hurst explained, “We flipped over a couple of yard signs, took them, put ’em upside down and put them right side up,” Hurst said. “That’s what we did.”
When asked which signs he tamoered with, Hurst replied they were “Republican signs .. one Jason Ballard sign and one [Glenn] Youngkin sign.” Later, he issued an official statement.
From WXFR-TV:
“This has been a real drag out race, it’s been very competitive, and, in some degree, it’s been sometimes nasty. You know, election eve, you’ve run a really hard race, run a very long campaign, and you just do a prank to be a goof and, you know, it just happens to be done by somebody who is very apologetic for what they’ve done and realizes that, you know, I have people looking up to me and I have a real responsibility that I need to live up to, and I think in my actions, legislatively and what we’ve been able to accomplish for this district, I continue to show that we get results for the New River Valley, but again I apologize to people for disappointing them and it’s something I’m just looking to move forward from.”
I don’t know why anyone would think that Democrats might cheat to win elections.
Hurst lost his seat, by the way.
You know: racists!
Ethics Alarms 
I’m with Hurst in the sense that I don’t think the officer should opine on the appropriate actions Hurst should take to rectify the situation (go back and fix the signs) or his proper role as an elected official. Just issue a citation for vandalism or trespass and move on.
I would have no problem telling an official who’s paid with taxpayer dollars and was tampering with property he didn’t own to knock it off. I also loved the guy’s non-apology and his piggy-backing on a tough governor’s race to justify his actions.
Otnay ootay ightbray.
Why not? Law enforcement officers are allowed to lecture citizens, and this lecture was appropriate. “Fix what you did” is well within a police officer’s discretion as a directive.
I blame having watched too many “Longmire” episodes. He would have done more than suggest that the couple go back and fix the signs.
Good man, that Longmire. I miss him.
Are you sure that statement wasn’t written by Gabby Johnson? Sure sounds like him.
Rarit!
In 2016, I decided to vote for the first time in my adult life.
When I began asking questions from friends and family on both sides, my foot met tolerant preaching Democrat friends were acting like my former Moral majority friends, but worse.
I hated Trump. Hated his Jr. High behavior, his childish behavior AND I did notice on longer interviews where the interviewer actually was curious and listened, he displayed a much different authentic and likeable side.
I still didn’t want to vote for him.
Hilary I found phony, condescending and just NOT someone I could vote for.
Even trump at his worst didn’t make me cringe as much.
That being said… I was undecided.
What finally tipped my hand to vote Trump was the actions of my democrat friends.
Gone was tolerance, gone was reason. Gone were facts, gone was compassion, gone was EVERYTHING they said they stood for.
I voted for Trump because their behavior scared the crap out of me AND I thought…
“This underbelly stuff NEEDS to come out for all to see and I don’t think that will happen unless Trump wins.”
And sadly I was right.
And they’ve gotten worse and worse.
Not sure you saw Van Jones on election night saying how maybe they need to look in the mirror. And how he thought maybe they’ve lost touch with how they come off. Ya think?
The upside is…
You don’t act like they are when you are tolerant.
And their true colors, from how they treat ANYONE who disagrees with them for ANY reason to how they IGNORE FACTS and SCIENCE have come out so much louder than anyone imagined, and the continue to prove to be NOTHING like the kind, caring, individuals they say they are. And none of it is Trumps fault.
Hopefully they continue to crumble along with ANYONE on the right who also acts out of integrity.
We all want more.
By the way, isn’t it interesting there was NO coverage about Ron Johnson’s round table on the vaccine injuries in the last 10 months? More deaths and adverse effects reported than the last 25 years combined. And NOTHING. Except the left lying and shaming people who don’t trust our leaders who have lied to us about that too.
Sick.
Boo another comment didn’t go through.
Do you wanna kick me out?
They were rescued. I have no idea why these comments ended up in spam.
Absolutely not. We really don’t want to kick anyone out, especially when it’s someone who can offer good arguments, regardless whether I agree or not. (But usually I do agree).
Besides, this is a diverse blog: mermaids,extradimensional cephalopods, Canadians…
Not to mention the odd Greek.
“The Odd Greek” was my handle in law school.
Isn’t “The Odd Greek” a bit redundant? I mean, I can’t think of any Greeks I’ve known that weren’t at least a little bit off.
Very redundant. Although there is a difference between An Odd Greek and THE Odd Greek.
I told you not to mention the odd Greek. Now see what you’ve started.
At this point I would normally start offering jokes about Greeks, but there’s always someone lurking who takes that sort of thing far too literally.
Do you use a VPN Mermaid? I have seen other websites block people like this because they are using VPNs that have been used by spammers and the VPN IP addresses have been flagged by security features.