US politician fails election by one vote - his own

Here at Acid Rabbi, we pride ourselves on having as much awareness of what's going on in the world of American politics as the average American has in the politics of the rest of the world. None, in other words.

But this one can't be ignored...

Micheal Heagerty - probably no longer grinning.
Image nicked from www.syracuse.ny.us, used without permission.

Michael Heagerty, the Common Councillor of Syracuse (no, we have no idea what a common councillor is or does either), needed a minimum of 335 signatures in his petition to run for re-election to the Democrat Party. Not very many, is it? He had 20 volunteers helping him and between them they managed to collect a more-than-sufficient 398 names - not bad. But then it all went badly wrong.

Heagerty's Republican opponent, Matt Rayo, challenged the petition because he was of the opinion that some of the signatures might be invalid. Officials from the County Board of Elections found this was indeed the case and declared 64 of them to be no good. Bad luck for Mike - that left him just one signature short. So near and yet so far.

The thing is, it got even worse. The following day, a reporter phoned him enquiring why he hadn't signed his own petition. "I didn't sign my own petition? You've got to be kidding me," he said, doubtless smashing his own head into the nearest wall as the words left his mouth.