STRANGE BEDFELLOWS… Squid has an always-live phone connection into the Weekly’s newsroom, where Squid enjoys listening to the anguished cries of reporters during election season. The fighting over candidates, the confusion over badly written ballot propositions that say one thing, but really mean another – it’s like Christmas for any politically minded cephalopod. And then there’s the insane amount of campaign literature. Squid shlepped into the office to pick up a check earlier this week and was almost buried by an avalanche of “pick me, pick me” flyers that fell out of Squid’s mail cubby.

Squid sat next to the pile, dejected, and picked through it. First came the Monterey County Republican Party endorsement list that someone had photocopied and sent to Squid. All the usual suspects were there – Seaside mayoral candidate Joseph Smith, whose Twitter bio includes the QAnon rallying cry #WWG1WGA, got the local GOP nod. Salinas mayoral candidate Mike Lipe, who recently filmed himself refusing to wear a mask while inside a Salinas cannabis dispensary and getting escorted out by security, got the stamp of approval. Squid kept reading, expecting to see Steve McShane’s name for the District 4 county supervisor seat, but perplexingly, it was not to be. McShane, who walks, talks, quacks, accepts campaign donations and makes policy decisions like a Republican, changed his party affiliation to Democrat to run in the district long held by Supervisor Jane Parker. The GOP couldn’t outwardly endorse him, so instead they wrote this: “DO NOT VOTE for Wendy Root Askew.” LOLs.

Squid then turned Squid’s attention to a flyer that appeared to be from the Salinas Valley Democrats, not to be confused with the Monterey County Democratic Party. The SVD is the oldest chartered club in the Salinas Valley, meaning it operates under the county party, but makes its own endorsements, with Supervisor Luis Alejo’s mom, Maria Luisa Alejo, as president. On their flyer: Joe Biden for president, Jimmy Panetta for congress, John Laird for state senate and… McShane (he of the affiliation flip) for supervisor. Squid can’t decide what’s worse: The sexism of refusing to endorse a woman who’s an actual Democrat for that seat, or the ignoring of McShane’s political history. But, ah: When Squid flipped the mailer over, the other side was a color advertisement for McShane and read “Paid for by McShane for Supervisor.” He’d taken a Monterey County Democrats endorsement flyer, and replaced Askew with himself.

The Monterey County Democrats issued a statement calling the mailer misleading and deceptive. The Salinas Valley club countered with a statement of its own: Nothing to see here, all good.

Oh Nov. 3. You cannot arrive fast enough for Squid. Or the country and world.

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