Not Worth The Abuse

Stephen Smith did the right thing.

The Flora realtor this weekend announced he would be withdrawing from the 109^th State Representative race. He did so because he was getting tired of the abuse he was taking from anonymous sources.

It came in the form of relentless text messages from untraceable cell phones…in Facebook messages from faceless trolls, too cowardly to attach their real names to their words. He says recently someone even cut his car tires. Smith says it has caused sleepless nights. He was worried about his wife who is eight months pregnant.

Best he made the decision, because it is only going to get worse. And that fact should greatly concern us all. Good people have to think twice before getting into public life because of the political climate we live in.

I don’t know Smith well. I talked to him briefly this weekend to try and get a better understanding of the abuse he says has been launched his way. He suggested it wasn’t all coming from people outside of the Republican party. In fact, he was rather sure some of the abuse was coming from inside his own party in Clay County.

So, if you are handicapping this race---you have Fairfield’s Cory Musgrave, Richland County Sheriff Andy Hires and Adam Nieberg from Teutopolis on the Republican side…and John Spencer on the Democratic side. The person who currently sits in the seat, Representative Darren Bailey, has endorsed Musgrave in the GOP primary.

Stephen Smith says he didn’t feel comfortable with the heat brought on his young family…

Harry Truman once said----if you can’t stand the heat, get out of the kitchen…which seems all together applicable to this situation.