I am a self-admitted political junkie and have been one for a long, long time. This presidential cycle, which kicked off with Ted Cruz’s announcement in March 2015, has gone on for about 19 months. It gets more painful by the day. Please Lord, make it end.

I will move past the obligatory “no one is perfect” line. Anyone who has not been living in a cave for these many months has at least a passing knowledge of the criticisms of Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump. Trump, however, has taken things well past normal knowledge or understanding of the political world. He and his running mate Michael Pence and their fellow travelers are operating in another universe where the truth as recorded in video and audio does not exist. Arguing about facts when facts are documented and preserved is totally bizarre. But that is what they are doing.

The Breitbart-controlled Republican Party went nuclear on Sunday night in a desperate attempt to hold on to the party base. Civility and respect for others went totally out the window. As if that were not enough, Trump spent half of Sunday night’s debate physically stalking Hillary, evidently trying to intimidate her. Which, of course, didn’t work. Rick Lazio must have been so proud of Trump.

Fewer than 48 hours after the Trump sex-laden tape was revealed, the number of Republican governors, senators, and members of the House of Representatives who dropped their support for Trump grew to 18 percent of their total number. On Monday, House Speaker Paul Ryan announced that he would no longer defend Trump, which was of course followed by a Trump tweet denouncing Ryan.

All of this is coming just four weeks before Election Day. The best theory I have heard about what is going on is that these same Republicans were not moved to abandon Trump when all he was doing was attacking POWs, Muslims, minorities, the disabled, or Rosie O’Donnell because those attacks did not affect people about whom Republican politicians spend much time being concerned. The Trump sex video, however, with its disrespect for women, has a much bigger impact on voters on whose support Republicans have counted in the past. Thus, their panic.

A new NBC poll, taken after the tape came out but before Sunday’s debate, shows Clinton now extending her lead into double digits. Polls will continue to bounce around over the next four weeks. 

I happen to think there is a more telling indicator about where this thing is going: Those 60 or so Republican governors, senators, and members of the House who have abandoned Trump. There will be more. They are the canaries in the coal mine.

Trump’s sinister threat during the debate to, if he were to win, appoint a special prosecutor to go after Clinton to send her to jail is Breitbart-Conway plotting at their worst. The threat is yet another parallel between Sinclair Lewis’ s1935 novel It Can’t Happen Here and what is continuing to play out in the Republican Party campaign. 

In the book, after the populist-fascist candidate, Brezelius Windrip, is elected president, he has his former campaign opponent arrested and locked up. A hundred or so congressmen are also arrested when they refuse to go along with the new president’s demands for total control to run the country.

It can’t happen here.

The latest campaign financial reports

Campaign committees were required to file their latest financial reports last Friday with information available through October 3. Here is the summary for major local races:

Erie County District Attorney: Democrat John Flynn and Republican Joe Treanor are nearly tied in the amount they had in their campaign treasuries as of October 3. Flynn had a balance of $1,764; Treanor $1,742. Flynn has a liability of $10,000. Flynn has a fundraiser planned for next Monday, October 17. Treanor says he is self-funding, but he will accept contributions from the Republican Party. 

One note about the Flynn fundraiser: He is informing potential donors that he will not accept any donations from staff of the District Attorney’s office or their families.

New York State Senate, 60th District: The TV ads are flying in this district for both Republican Chris Jacobs and Democrat Amber Small. Jacobs’s ads, which are kind of off-beat, seemed to have been paid for indirectly by the State Senate Republican Campaign Committee, which recently donated $119,000 to Jacobs’ committee. He had a balance of $243,512 as of October 3. Small’s account had about a tenth of that—$24,594. There are TV ads running for her that are paid for by New York State United Teachers.

New York State Supreme Court: There is a four-way race for two seats in the Eighth Judicial District. Actually there is a fifth candidate, from New York City, who is running to facilitate a Working Families Party political deal on Long Island, but there won’t be any activity here from him. 

Republican candidate Mary Slisz had a balance of $189,353. No TV buys were reported yet. As of 8am on October 11, the other Republican candidate, Daniel Furlong, did not have a campaign report recorded. Democrat Lynn Keane’s account showed a balance of $75,805, but she had already purchased $46,000 in TV air time. The second Democratic candidate, Grace Hanlon, reported a balance of $37,352, having raised $48,703 thus far. 

The race for the two Supreme Court candidates will be impacted by turnout and votes for president on the Democratic and Republican lines. I’ll have an analysis of such things later this month.

Schratz campaign lights up

Some campaigns are deep into their final push while others seem to be just getting started.

The Republican candidate in the 26th Congressional District against incumbent Brian Higgins is Amherst businesswoman Shelly Schratz. She once served on the Amherst Town Council and has run for other offices, including Erie County Clerk.

Schratz’s campaign seems to be moving into high gear. I have personally seen two lawn signs. One is located at the Harlem Road entrance to the 290. The other is at the end of the Kensington Expressway at Michigan and Goodell.

I am not sure who might be paying for the signs because they are not exactly campaign signs. They advertise Schratz’s restaurant, Bing’s, on top, with “Shelly Schratz” printed below. Next to her name, in very small print, are the words “Owner.”

So maybe she is just advertising dinner specials. Or maybe it is her way to link her business experience to the campaign.

There have been rumors speculating on who might, at least temporarily, succeed Chris Jacobs as Erie County Clerk if he is elected to the State Senate. Schratz’s name has been mentioned. Word on the street is that it’s not going to happen. Perhaps planning a new fall menu would be in order.

In any case, I offer some unsolicited advice here: Don’t quit your day job.

Other races

Maybe it’s that the presidential campaign is sucking up all the political oxygen. Or maybe it’s just getting harder to encourage non-incumbents to run for state legislative seats. Whatever the reason, there is hardly any excitement in such races in 2016.

Technically there are races in the majority of state Assembly and Senate districts in Western New York. See how many names you recognize:

Assembly 140th District: Incumbent Robin Schimminger (D, C,I ); Danielle Rotolo (R, Ref); Anthony Baney (G)

141st District: Incumbent Crystal Peoples-Stokes (D, WF); Ross Kostecky (R)

143rd District: Monica Wallace (D, WF, WEP); Russell Sugg (R, C, I, Ref)

145th District: Incumbent John Ceretto (D, WF); Angelo Morinello (R, C, I, Ref)

146th District: Incumbent Ray Walter (R, C, I, Ref); Steven Meyer (D, G, WF, WEP)

149th District: Incumbent Sean Ryan (D, WF, I, WEP); Arnold Kacelski (R)

Senate 59th District: Incumbent Pat Gallivan (R, C, I,  Ref); Tom Casey (D)

60th District: Amber Small (D, WF, WEP); Chris Jacobs (R, C, I, Ref); James DePasquale (G)

61st District: Incumbent Michael Ranzenhofer (R, C, I, Ref); Tom Loughran (D, WF, WEP); Ruben Cartagena, Jr. (G)

Incumbents Mickey Kearns (142nd AD), Michael Norris (144th AD), David DiPietro (147th AD), Robert Ortt (62nd SD), and Tim Kennedy (63rd SD) have no challengers.

In reality, there are only four districts where there is or there could possibly be a real race: the 145th Assembly District; the 146th District; the 60th Senate District; and the 61st Senate District. Only the 60th Senate District is attracting any attention.

Ken Kruly writes about politics and stuff at politicsandstuff.com.