by Abdul-Hakim Shabazz
Okay, I will freely admit to stealing that headline from an anti-Diego Morales mailer when he ran for Congress in the 4th District in 2018. However, I find the title fitting because it’s the best way I can describe Morales’ supporters, especially in light of recent news surrounding the candidate.
Where do we start, getting fired from the office under then SOS Todd Rokita, quitting the office before getting fired by Charlie White, spending $43,000 of campaign funds on a vehicle when with a little bit of effort, he could have got it for free, or at least leased a car. And then there was his walking back positions on early voting and whether Joe Biden is the lawfully elected President. And don’t forget the questions regarding his military service and, of course, the big one, allegations of sexual misconduct.
Let’s face Morales has more baggage than the Indianapolis International Airport.
But don’t tell that to Morales’ hardcore supporters. They aren’t having any of it. This is the work of establishment Holcomb -loving Republicans, Democrats, and their allies in the media, who have placed a target on the back of the only Hispanic Republican statewide candidate in an effort to destroy him and distract from inflation, high gas prices, and a horrible economy,
With all due respect, give me a friggin’ break.
Morales has one person to blame for his issues that have kept surfacing in this campaign, and if he wants to find him, I suggest getting a mirror. No one in the media got him fired or made statements regarding his military service. And no media person allegedly committed sexual assault against at least two females.
What’s funny is a lot of this could have been avoided by simply spending $10,000 on some self-opposition research. When you run for a statewide office, you first check and see where the landmines are so you know how to respond when they come up. You don’t go tap dancing in a minefield.
For example, an easy answer to his getting fired was simple: I was young and immature and wasn’t taking things seriously, but since then, I have grown and matured, and now I am ready to serve. Problem solved.
This isn’t hard, folks.
But the Morales crowd won’t hear that. And Morales adds to it. Recently, he spoke at a Republican event in Crawford County and told the crowd that Democrats were “throwing the kitchen sink at him,” and he would never allow them to “break his spirit.”
And this is why the Secretary of State’s race is competitive. We polled the race two times this summer. Once in July and again in late September. The results were very close. The poll in July of 800 likely shows Democrat Destiny Wells leading Republican Diego Morales, 31-28 percent. Libertarian Jeff Mauer is at seven percent, and 34 percent at this point are undecided. The September poll had Wells up by four (36-32). Maurer was still at 7 percent of the vote, while 25 percent remained undecided.
But if you dig deeper into the crosstabs, Morales was getting just 59 percent of his base in July, while 33 percent of Republicans were undecided. Fast forward to this most recent poll, just two-thirds (65 percent) of Republicans supported Morales. Twenty-seven percent were undecided. That’s a big chunk of the GOP still out, with early voting starting later in the week.
So if I were Morales, I’d be spending time talking to those skeptical Republicans who should have been in his camp months ago as opposed to going after the Establishment, Democrats, the media, the Trilateral Commission, Council on Foreign Relations, and tentacles of Odessa.
But then again, it’s always easier to blame someone else for your candidate’s issues.
If I may paraphrase Shakespeare’s Julius Ceaser, the fault lies not within the press or anyone else but within your guy.
Abdul-Hakim is the editor and publisher of Indy Politics. He is also an attorney licensed in Indiana and Illinois.
