A Democrat running for Alabama state Congress has come up with an odd way to score political points: He, or a member of his staff, has taken to Facebook to imply his opponent is a “homosexual congressman” whose staff is “ALL homosexuals.”
Daniel Boman, who ran as a Republican until last year, didn’t actually name his opponent, incumbent Republican Robert Aderholt, in his “homosexual” comments. But it’s hard to think Boman meant to refer to anyone else in his Oct.15 Facebook post, which poses the following hypothetical:
Who would you vote for on Novemeber [sic] 6, 2012 between the following two candidates:
1) A republican who is a homosexual who has a voting record of voting AGAINST ALL homosexual legislation. Further, this particular homosexual congressman has ALL homosexuals working on his congressional staff
OR
2) A democrat who is a straight male, but has no voting record for or against homosexual legislation.
It doesn’t seem to have been an effective strategy, at least going by the responses Boman got on Facebook. “This is the most awkward push poll I have ever encountered,” wrote Chris Cleland.
Boman later added in an interview that being gay would “absolutely” disqualify a candidate from office if that candidate also claimed to be conservative.
There are more inflammatory posts on Boman’s Facebook wall. On October 9th, he (or his staff) wrote a long screed about how hard it is to win as a Democrat in Alabama’s 4th district, which has leaned heavily Republican in recent elections.
“My congressional race has nothing to do with the presidential election, Therefore do not vote for me or against me based on the presidential race […] My opponent has not campaigned because he thinks you are going to give him another 2 year FREE RIDE, just simply because he is a republican and the President is a black democrat.”
This isn’t the only recent instance of a politician posting controversial material to Facebook. In September, the Mecklenburg County, Va. GOP Facebook page came under fire for posting photoshopped images of President Obama. The page administrator finally removed the photos after the state party chairman repeatedly ordered him to do so, referring to the material as “offensive, tasteless.”
Photo via BomanForCongress/Facebook