A lot of those voters will check Cherfilus-McCormick’s name on the ballot just because she is black, or is a woman, or is a Democrat, because their comprehension of their civic responsibility goes no deeper than tribal loyalty. Or, in the alternative, they will blindly vote for this grifter because they will never bother to find out why she resigned her seat.
Our culture, through our incompetent schools, corrosive popular culture and irresponsible journalism, imbues U.S. citizens with a near-fatal level of ethical ignorance and civic apathy. For others, Cherfilus-McCormick’s predictable claim that she was framed by her political enemies ( as well as racists and sexists) will resonate, because, in fact, they have seen too many examples where that has actually happened, most notably in the lawfare used to take Donald Trump out of the 2024 election. And Hillary Clinton, a leader of Cherfilus-McCormick’s party, told the country in 1998 that her husband’s Monica Lewinsky scandal was the work of a “vast right-wing conspiracy,” even as she knew that was a lie.
The fact that Cherfilus-McCormick could even think she could run for the same office again is a frightening symptom of a sick society struggling to show it is still worthy of a republic. She isn’t the only example either: Mark Sanford, the former Republican South Carolina governor and congressman, is running for his old House seat this fall. Remember him? He’s the wacko who went AWOL as governor in 2009 while his aides falsely told reporters that he was hiking the Appalachian Trail. He was really in Argentina, having a romantic affair with a woman he later described his “soul mate.” Let’s see: unstable, irresponsible, untrustworthy, dishonest, an unapologetic adulterer who abandoned an elected position of public service for his own gratification—Hell yes, what’s there not to like?
This isn’t just a rotten political class crisis. It is a civic apathy crisis.
Ethics Alarms 
From the 20th district’s Wikipedia page:
“The district includes most of the majority-Black precincts in and around western and central Broward County and small portion of southeastern Palm Beach County. The district is the only majority-Black district in Florida.”
I would like to question the “canary in the coalmine” designation, as corruption has been part of the political landscape since a very long time, at least since Tammany Hall, Boss Tweed, and Roscoe Conkling; that episode in American History has plenty of material for a very long ethics post at Ethics Alarms?
What about Governor Huey Long from Louisiana? Major Big Bill Johnson from Chicago? Or the many governors from Illinois who later went to prison?
So my impression is that Cherfilus-McCormick is most likely a crook; however she is not a bigger than life crook about whom films have been made, such as Huey Long.
About Mark Warner running for Congress again, that is not a canary in the coal mine either; that has been an ex-canary for a long time who kicked the bucket during the Clinton impeachment trial, when the Senate decided to give Bill Clinton a pass for his sexual harassment and perjury. That event instilled in Republicans the attitude that they were not willing to contend anymore with the double standards of the Democrats anymore, and hence adultery has not been a political career killer for Republicans anymore since Bill Clinton.
The common ground for both political bases is that they would rather vote for a crook or a public sinner from their own party, than for anybody representing the other party. That also illustrates the political polarization in this country, as both parties have little common ground anymore.
Apples and oranges. The big city bosses—Mayor Daley and Boston’s James Michael Curley also come to mind, actually delivered goodies to patrons. A House member doesn’t provide any direct benefits to her district on the same scale, certain;y not a first term Congresswoman like Cherfilus-McCormick. Yes, there have been cases like Adam Clayton Powell in Harlem, but he was symbolic: when that rogue was in his prime, there were hardly any other blacks in Congress. Stealing money that is supposed to go to citizens in need has virtually always meant the end of a political career,