Florida Mayoral Candidate Called ‘Unelectable’ Because She’s Not Married

The Plight of the Single Lady, the Political Edition: You decide to run for mayor. In doing so, you are attacked as “unfit for office” because you’ve “put [your] political ambition” ahead of getting married and having children, a/k/a you have “a suspect commitment to family values,” while your opponent, a man, has two children and is therefore “a dedicated family man.” Despite the imagery of a withered rose, this is not a joke. Tampa, Florida, mayoral candidate Rose Ferlita has been called “Unmarried, unsure, and unelectable,” by a political action group that, Bust Magazine points out, is not a right-wing extremist group.

Rose Ferlita is the conservative candidate in the race and the fliers were sent out by “Less Government Now;” a 527 political action group (meaning they can accept an unlimited amount of donations as long as they don’t advocate for any specific candidate) that’s connected to Scott Maddox, a Democrat candidate who last year convinced a friend to enter the running as a fake Tea Party candidate in order to split the Republican vote.

The theory is that the group is using right-wing rhetoric to convince conservative voters not to vote for the conservative candidate (who, being not married, must be considered suspect and, for the love of God, what if she doesn’t even like men!?), which is just all sorts of fucked up. Say what you will about candidate’s ideologies, capabilities, pros and cons, inherent sliminess, etc…but can we keep insults about marital status out of it? This is the year 2011, right? Does it need to be said? Marital status is neither a professional trait, nor, even, a personality trait.

Here’s the inside of the flier. Any validity in the latter two points is sadly undermined by the utter ridiculousness of the first.

If she wanted to, she would’ve put a ring on it [Bust, via The Frisky]