I get to tell an old story....
In the good old days I worked on a congressional campaign for the Republican candidate challenging the incumbent lefty—this guy:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gerry_Studds
We were way behind in the polls in what should have been a close district—our fault—we had run a mediocre campaign.
It is time for the “big meeting”.
Do we drop the “bomb” or not?
Our opposition research had strong documentation that the Congressmen had been having sexual relations with teenage boys—including Congressional staff.
Do we go there or not?
Every staffer (including me) said “go for it—nothing to lose—scorched earth”.
The candidate—a devout Catholic and a prominent citizen in the community—said no. This was “dirty politics”.
So—we got clobbered.
You can read the Wikipedia article to find out what happened next.
Lol.
For those who don’t want to read all the way to the end—the punch line:
“In a 2018 lawsuit, Studds was accused of sexual misconduct toward students at Saint Paul’s School in Concord, NH, while he was a teacher there in the 1960s.”
You can’t make up this stuff.
I remember that name and the controversy now that you brought it up.
I didn’t pay as close attention to politics back then because I was raising 3 boys.
But I remember his name being mentioned along with Barney Frank some years later.