Ballot flap: Partisans aside, let’s move on

The Clarion-Ledger Editorial, 9/21/8

Gov. Haley Barbour and Secretary of State Delbert Hosemann finally agreed Thursday to do what they should have done all along and follow the law in deciding placement of a U.S. Senate election on the Nov. 4 ballot.

The state Supreme Court ruled that putting the election near the bottom of the ballot was against state law, but stopped short of ordering them to move it. Barbour and Hosemann wisely decided to respect that ruling.

But the rancor generated by their obviously partisan attempt to bury the race down ballot wasn’t only bad policy, it was bad politics on their part as well.