I retract what I said then. That indeed sounds like he shouldn’t have run. I had presumed he offered himself up to give the party a decent candidate, but that it turned out a worse screw-up than Largent in ‘02, who was expected to win (although personally I thought Largent was a total dolt, especially on the Elian Gonzalez affair where he demonstrated absolutely no knowledge of the rights of children and parents under the Cuban Constitution). I was concerned when I saw we lost all those other statewide offices in ‘06, including that of Brenda Reneau’s Labor Commissioner. I presume her loss was partly a result of what you cited (and the failure, too, to hold Mary Fallin’s Lt Governorship).
Largent was a great football player, not so great a politician. He may have been a little too honest for Congress.