For all its shortfalls, the 2014 election cycle has had more than its fair share of exciting moments, dramatic flare-ups and outright bizarre turns of event.
Here are the best and worst.
WORST INCUMBENT #FAIL: Eric Cantor
Nobody saw it coming, but on June 10, Cantor became the first sitting House majority leader in U.S. history to lose a primary challenge, a political earthquake for Capitol Hill. He was defeated by more than 10 points. Political analysts have speculated that the Virginia Republican might have helped himself by visiting his district a bit more often.
BEST KISS: Vance McAllister
Rep. Vance McAllister (R-LA), who is married, was caught on video in April smothering a staff member in a passionate kiss. The since-nicknamed “kissing congressman” might lose reelection.
WORST GAFFE: Bruce Braley
Condescending on farmers isn’t exactly a wise political move in Iowa, especially when said farmer happens to be the state’s most popular politician, Chuck Grassley. Democratic Senate candidate Braley stepped in it when video surfaced of him in March telling out-of-state trial lawyers that if he loses, “you might have a farmer from Iowa who never went to law school, never practiced law, serving as the next chair of the Senate Judiciary Committee.”
BEST ELECTION NIGHT SHENANIGANS: Mississippi courthouse lock-in
On the night of the Mississippi GOP primary, three allies of Chris McDaniel paid a visit to the Hinds County courthouse where ballots were being stored, “to obtain the outstanding numbers and observe the count,” the McDaniel campaign said later. They ended up locked inside the courthouse until 3:45 a.m.
WORST SLIP OF THE TONGUE: Vincent Sheheen’s ‘whore’ moment
The Democratic nominee for South Carolina just wanted to rally supporters with a clever line vowing to defeat Republican Gov. Nikki Haley. Unfortunately he mispronounced the word “her,” and the line came out as, “And we are going to escort whore out the door.” (He immediately corrected himself and later apologized.)
BEST KEG STAND: Sen. Mary Landrieu on the tailgating circuit
Actual photo of Sen. Mary Landrieu helping a supporter conduct a keg stand pic.twitter.com/VKxoNipFFy
— Ellen L. Carmichael (@ellencarmichael) September 21, 2014
This one speaks for itself.
Honorable mention: Sen. Pat Roberts (R-KS), after much had been made about the fact he didn’t have a residence in the state he represented, said in an interview with KCMO: “Every time I get an opponent — I mean, every time I get a chance, I’m home.”
WORST TEMPER TANTRUM: Michael Grimm
The Staten Island Republican lost his cool after President Obama’s sixth State of the Union, threatening to break a probing New York TV reporter in half “like a boy” and throw him off a balcony. It was all caught on camera. But 10 months later, maybe the joke is on the Democrats, because the voters of Grimm’s swing district don’t seem to mind. He leads by 19 points in a new Siena College poll.
BEST NERD FEUD: Nate Silver vs. Sam Wang
The two polling geniuses have had an ongoing war of words over whose model is superior. After FiveThirtyEight’s Silver called out Princeton University’s Wang by name, things got pretty heated and personal. And they’ve stayed that way.
Honorable mention: A different Nate Silver nerd feud this year, with his former New York Times colleague Paul Krugman.
WORST DÉJÀ VU: Martha Coakley
The Massachusetts Democrat who blew a commanding lead against Scott Brown in 2010 for U.S. Senate has given reporters a throwback to the special election that nearly killed Obamacare. Four years later, Coakley has blown a 10-point lead against Republican Charlie Baker for governor, and now trails him going into Election Day. It’s not a done deal, but Coakley has again failed to capitalize on a 3-to-1 voter registration advantage in deep-blue Massachusetts.
BEST ABSURD AD: Joni Ernst’s hog-castration spot
Castrating farm animals during one’s childhood isn’t widely seen as a qualification for high office. And yet the opening line of Ernst’s first TV ad helped propel the underdog Republican to victory in the primary. She now has a good shot at winning the U.S. Senate seat.
WORST SORE LOSER: Chris McDaniel
After he lost the Mississippi GOP runoff by a razor-thin margin, McDaniel refused to concede, and suggested Sen. Thad Cochran had cheated after he motivated African-American voters to support him. “There is something a bit strange, there is something a bit unusual about a Republican primary that’s decided by liberal Democrats,” McDaniel said. He sued, all the way up to the state supreme court, and lost.
BEST DEBATE MOMENT: Charlie Crist’s fan
Charlie Crist’s fan has always been there for him in the most trying moments, and it came through in a major way when the Republican-turned-Democrat brought it to a debate stage, against the rules, with Gov. Rick Scott (R). Scott refused to take the stage for six minutes, presumably because of the fan. If media coverage is any indication, the fan won the debate, hands down.
WORST NSFW IMAGERY: Carl DeMaio’s accuser
A former male staffer for Carl DeMaio (R) named Todd Bosnich told CNN that the California House candidate once called him into his office so he could masturbate in front of him. “I saw his hand — his penis in his hand,” Bosnich, one of two former aides accusing the openly gay DeMaio of sexual harassment told CNN. “He had a smile on his face. And as soon as I came over, he was looking at me.”
BEST WEIRD SCANDAL: Governor’s fiancée’s previous sham green card marriage
The Oregon gubernatorial race was shaken up by an October revelation that the fiancée of Gov. John Kitzhaber (D) had entered into a sham marriage with an Ethiopian immigrant in 1997. She got money, he got a green card. “It was a marriage of convenience,” Cylvia Hayes, the fiancée, admitted. “He needed help, and I needed financial support.” Kitzhaber has dipped a bit in the polls since then, but he remains in good shape to win reelection in the liberal state.
