Canthook

I wrote the other day about Lloyd Smucker and his run for the state senate.

I pointed out that the primary was very heated. Having registered as a Republican years ago, I'm not allowed to vote in the Democratic primary, and I mentioned that I was glad that I got to vote on something, since I didn't get to vote on Hillary versus Barack.

This afternoon's New Era indicated that Lloyd Smucker has picked up a number of endorsements this morning: state Rep. Gordon Denlinger, West Lampeter Township supervisor Barry Hershey, state Senator Gib Armstrong, West Lampeter Township supervisor Jim Kalenich and Charlie Smithgall, former Lancaster City mayor. (That's the order, left to right, in which they appear in the photo.)

It's Gib Armstrong who is giving up the seat Smucker is running for. Smucker seemed to be leading in the polls, and former county commissioner Paul Thibault is the leading challenger.

And the Smucker and Thibault ads are both pretty negative. When something like this happens, I assume A is right about B being a bad choice, and B is right about A being a bad choice.

I'd mentioned before that Steve McDonald is in third place. McDonald is currently the county's recorder of deeds. He's the one with the goofy portrait. If he's married, and his wife allows that portrait to be used, his marriage is in deep trouble.

I didn't know the name of the fourth candidate, the one with no yard signs, as far as I can tell, and who whose support in the Intelligencer-Journal's phone poll was positively anemic.

Now I know his name. It's Bill Neff. Neff is a local locksmith. I assume that his family has been around a long time; there's a community called "Neffsville". I also presume that he's honest. Nobody tolerates a dishonest locksmith, especially the state, and Neff Lock and Key is a fairly large and successful concern.

So now, I have someone I feel comfortable voting for. I know that's a mistake, feeling comfortable about voting for a candidate, but it's also a vote against three other candidates, and voting against politicians is often a sane practice.