“Don’t be stupid. Get out.”

— New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie (R), quoted by the New York Post, warning residents in low lying areas not to try to ride out Hurricane Sandy.

California assemblyman Mike Morrell (R) said in a campaign speech that government officials “should be shot” for how they handle tax money, the Sacramento Bee reports.

Said Morell: “Government picks winners and losers. So what I decided to do in California; study how good of a job does government do with our tax money in helping the poor. … (Laughter from the audience) … Somehow I don’t think you guys think they do very well. Well, let me tell ya. Let me tell ya. It ain’t very good. I mean, it’s, they should be shot.”

[Read more…]

Wisconsin state Rep. Roger Rivard (R) “is drawing heat for saying that his father had told him when he was young that ‘some girls rape easy’ as a way to warn him that a woman could agree to sex but then later claim that it wasn’t consensual,” the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel reports.

Said Rivard: “He also told me one thing, ‘If you do, just remember, consensual sex can turn into rape in an awful hurry.’ Because all of a sudden a young lady gets pregnant and the parents are madder than a wet hen and she’s not going to say, ‘Oh, yeah, I was part of the program.’ All that she has to say or the parents have to say is it was rape because she’s underage. And he just said, ‘Remember, Roger, if you go down that road, some girls,’ he said, ‘they rape so easy.'”

A North Carolina state senate race may be the first election in the country to feature a vaginal probe in a television ad.

[Read more…]

Florida Gov. Rick Scott (R) was giving a routine update on the fungal meningitis outbreak in his state but rather than direct people to the meningitis hotline, the Tampa Bay Times notes he transposed two numbers and instead directed callers to a phone sex hotline.

Amazingly, it’s not an uncommon mistake. Dan Amira has a brief history of politicians sending people to phone sex numbers.

New Mexico Gov. Susana Martinez (R) spotted a 1-year-old child all alone strapped into a car seat in an unlocked and running car with her parents no where to be found, KASA-TV reports.

That’s when she went into a store “and had a clerk get on the intercom to find the parents. Meanwhile her security detail called the police. Soon after the child’s dad came out and got a lecture from the governor.”

Former New York Gov. David Paterson (D) and his wife, Michelle Paige Paterson, — who both admitted to past affairs when he took office — have separated after 19 years of marriage, the New York Post reports.

“Earlier this year, The Post revealed that Michelle was shopping a tell-all to publishers about her life in the public eye and that it would detail some of the couple’s past marital struggles.”

Minnesota Lt. Gov. Yvonne Prettner Solon (D) “jumped from a plane at 12,500 feet and landed by parachute on the Capitol lawn Tuesday as part of an event staged to show support for soldiers and their families. The plunge included a 120 miles per hour free fall through a clear blue sky,” the AP reports.

Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker’s (R) law repealing most collective bargaining for local and school employees was struck down by a judge, “yet another dramatic twist in a year and a half saga that likely sets up another showdown in the Supreme Court,” the Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel reports.

Tennessee state Rep. Kelly Keisling (R) emailed constituents “with a rumor circulating in conservative circles that President Barack Obama is planning to stage a fake assassination attempt in an effort to stop the 2012 election from happening,” the Huffington Post reports.

Keisling “sent an email from his state email account to constituents containing a rumor that Obama and the Department of Homeland Security are planning a series of events that could lead to the imposition of ‘martial law’ and delay the election. Among the events hypothesized in the email is a staged assassination attempt on the president that would lead to civil unrest in urban areas and martial law.”

The Denver Post reports that Colorado Gov. John Hickenlooper (D) and his wife, Helen Thorpe, announced they are separating after 10 years of marriage, but plan to remain a family that spends a “great deal of time together.”

From a statement: “Both the Governor and Ms. Thorpe want the public to know that neither has had an affair, that they did seek extended counseling, and that this decision is unrelated to the difficult events Colorado has faced this summer.”

Florida Lt. Gov. Jennifer Carroll (R) apologized “for offending lesbians when she said black women who engage in those relationships don’t look like her,” the AP reports.

“Carroll, who was implying that black lesbians aren’t attractive, made the remarks more than a week ago when she was asked about court documents in which a fired staffer claims that she walked in on Carroll and a female travel aide in a compromising position. Carroll denies that claim.”

Said Carroll: “It is wrong and inexcusable to make a comment that hurts people, and that was not my intention.”

Oklahoma state Senate candidate Fred E. Ray Smith (R) was arrested and jailed over the weekend for failure to appear in court for outstanding child support payments, the Oklahoman reports.

But he’s still in jail, explained campaign manager and fiance SunShine Fox: “He is currently still in jail because our money has been going to campaigning, so he will serve the time he needs to serve until we can get funds to get him out. The fact is we should have found other resources to possibly pay that.”

A new Quinnipiac poll finds New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo (D) with a staggering 73% to 16% approval rating, an all-time high.

Perhaps even more striking, Cuomo holds a 69% to 19% approval rate among Republicans.

Florida state Rep. Peter Nehr (R) apparently likes to take pictures of himself in bathrooms, according to photos leaked to the Tampa Bay Times.

Washington Rep. Matt Shea (R) “pulled a gun during a confrontation with another motorist last November in what police reports describe as a road rage incident,” the Spokane Review reports.

“Shea eventually was charged with a single firearm count — having a loaded handgun in a vehicle without a concealed weapons permit — which will be dismissed next January if he has no further criminal violations before then.”

New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo’s (D) administration, “already drawing attention for its focus on secrecy, has now begun editing his record as New York attorney general, sending aides to the state archives to remove key documents from public view,” the New York Times reports.

“The review of the archived material comes at a time when Mr. Cuomo is being much discussed as a 2016 presidential candidate. Many public figures with national ambitions have been concerned about being tripped up by old documents; when Mitt Romney left the governorship in Massachusetts, his administration wiped all e-mail from the government server and allowed his top aides to buy their work hard drives, so no electronic record remained.”

New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo (D) defended his admininstration’s use of the Blackberry’s personal identification number instead of emails in order to avoid a paper trail, YNN reports.

Said Cuomo: “Hacking is a problem and if you have a secure communication or a confidential communication or information that you don’t want disseminated, than you have a find a secure means to communicate it.”