I heard that habitual Cool Moose candidate for lieutenant governor Bob Healey had jumped onto the Moderate Party bandwagon pretty early this morning (proposed hashtag: #MoMo, for Moderate Moose).  The day being a whirlwind of reading legislation, seeking donations to assist with African medical facilities dealing with Ebola, and watching after an 11-month-old, it took until an afternoon pause for the news to really hit me.

Let’s just say I’ve lost all respect for Mr. Healey.  As far as I can see, this is pure, destructive vanity on his part.

My reaction isn’t based on the fact that I’d become a tepid Allan Fung supporter by the end of the primary race (so tepid that I voted in the Democrat primary even though I thought the GOP race a toss-up).  In that regard, Healey has merely made the unlikely possibility that Fung could walk the narrow political line to the governor’s seat into an impossibility.

Rather, people made decisions about their primary votes based on the transparent layout of the political landscape.  We all knew what the possibilities were, and we cast our votes based on likelihoods about the campaigns between the primary and the election.  And here comes this supposed good-government reformer exploiting a loophole in the law to announce a surprise candidacy two days after his fellow Rhode Islanders had spent their electoral power in the primary.

That’s as bad or worse than any trick that the insiders use to maintain their power… only they have the excuse of self interest.  Healey and his fellow MoMos have no excuse, although presumably they have the economic security for their own families that they can afford to make local governance into a game of Survivor, where the fun of the game (and the million bucks) is an excuse for deception.

Even after his less-than-graceful exit from lieutenant governor lore, I didn’t expect Bob Healey to become Fonzie jumping the shark.  I definitely didn’t expect him to become Richard Hatch.

ADDENDUM (9/11/14 8:30 p.m.):

Let’s not forget, by the way, that in the 2012 season, Heidi Rogers disenfranchised Republican voters three days after she won the primary in order to clear the path for Healey.  At least that was for the useless position of lieutenant governor.