Dead Campaign Walking

Well I've treated this issue with kid gloves so far, but now I gotta do a little speaking truth to power here for just a minute.

The campaign of Kizito Ekechukwu is a dead campaign walking.

His campaign is over.

He just doesn't know it.

You can't get arrested in the middle of a campaign and expect to win. You most especially can't get arrested for domestic violence-related charges and expect to win.

Honestly, the guy never had a shot at winning to begin with. He's never voted before running for office. He has almost zero name ID, even with a unique last name. He's got family money to blow on a campaign, but he doesn't have anyone on staff that knows a single thing about campaigning.

Which is a consequence of the fact that he was never engaged in public policy before running, thus the lack of a voting record.

I'm about as politically engaged as it gets in this town and I never heard of him before he decided to run for office. If I haven't heard of you, trust me the electorate hasn't. And the only thing they DO know is the fact that he was arrested recently.

He probably should've just sent out a press release saying he was suspending his campaign when all of this came to light. But he's pretty defiant. I asked him in the interview if he was going to continue with his campaign and he said he would.

Ekechukwu is politically naive and inexperienced. He doesn't understand a basic principle. Before people vote for you, they must first like you. If the only thing they know of you is that you were arrested for a DV charge, trust me they aren't going to like you. Even the most popular of political figures have a hard time surviving public scandal, there's no way a political nobody survives.

Here's what annoys me about Ekechukwu's campaign - his ego.

When I spoke to him, he characterized the whole event as pretty much no big deal. Had I seen the police report before I spoke to him, I wouldn't have let him off the hook with his statements so easily.

The fact that Ekechukwu tried to minimize the incident is really troublesome. Domestic violence isn't a joke or something unimportant. If you think for a minute that voters care more about taxes, TIRZ, and economic development than they do about being arrested during a campaign, then I have a port of entry in Horizon City to sell you.

The victim in the case called me the other day. She wanted me to take down the report. She went through various emotional stages in the call from frustration, to anger, to sadness, etc.

Frankly I think she's feeling guilty about what happened. The victim defending the abuser is almost cliché.

I don't want to think Ekechukwu had her call me. I don't want to think that she's feeling guilty about this or being pressured. But imagine the amount of emotion behind picking up the phone to make that phone call to me.

Domestic violence is never the victim's fault. The victim should never feel guilty about it after, although they often do.

I don't know if any of that fits the victim.

Ekechukwu deserves his day in court just like everyone else.

But politics is a different animal. Since no one knows who the hell he is, this is now going to define him. Especially if another candidate actually starts to leverage it.

Although they don't have to.

Ekechukwu, if he's smart, will avoid any scenario where he will have to answer questions. Women voters, and decent man for that matter, are going to rightfully ask questions about the incident and there is no answer that is a good answer for Ekechukwu.

The main candidate in the race is a woman.

She's a Forma candidate.

Forma is good at one thing - negative mail.

I don't think Ekechukwu has the slightest clue what is going to be headed his way in terms of mail if they felt it necessary to go after him. See the image I used on this post? That was quick and dirty. Can you imagine the mail piece that will land in mailboxes if Forma really sinks their teeth into this guy?

He was already going to lose this election, he was never a viable candidate. But now he's going to get trounced. And that is saying something because the District 5 field of candidates isn't very strong to begin with.

Ekechuckwu should have immediately suspended his campaign, if for no other reason than to save his child's mother, his child, and his family the embarrassment of this situation.

But he hasn't. He's still going like nothing happened. That is selfish and a sign of a really big ego. But whether he wants to admit it or not - whether or not he wants to formally end it or not - Ekechukwu needs to have someone around him that cares enough about him to tell him the truth...

Kizito Ekechukwu's campaign is over.

He just doesn't know it.

And he's going to realize it soon enough. When he does, it will be like the end of the Sixth Sense. He needs his own version of the little white kid that says, "I see dead people."

Because Ekechukwu's campaign is Dead Campaign Walking.