Several weeks before
Tuesday's election, Dan Smith—a Republican running for city attorney in the San Diego suburb of Chula Vista—demanded the San Diego County
Democratic Party stop promoting and encouraging voters to elect their nominee for the post, Simon Silva.
In most jurisdictions, such a claim would be seen as ostentatious, a denunciation reserved only for candidates so morally repugnant no political party should be allowed to support them.
Smith, however, had good reason to protest. Silva was dead, and had been for more than a month.
If elected, the city would be required to hold a special election to replace him, a process
The San Diego Union-Tribune reported would cost the city significant funds to accomplish. And telling voters otherwise, Smith claimed, was fraud.
"Misinformation by perpetuating this fraud on the voters of Chula Vista is potentially causing the expenditure of millions of dollars, which is a substantial amount of taxpayer funds," Smith wrote in a letter to the local party.
Smith's pleas, it seemed, went unheeded. With most of the vote tallied late Wednesday, Smith was losing to the deceased Silva by nearly 150 votes in a highly competitive election year in the city.