Hume’s last-minute appeal – clever or cynical?

If Republican Pat Hume – or most candidates in the Elk Grove area – relied on partisan support, they would probably lose. As a candidate for the Sacramento County Board of Supervisors District 5 seat, Hume has the conservative rural and Republican vote secured, but that is not enough.

So in his ongoing effort to get moderate Democrats and independents to support his candidacy, he has made appeals to broaden his base. For example, a few days ago, a 30-year-old Democratic voter received a text message from his campaign highlighting Hume’s tough-on-crime approach, which seemed incongruent with the voting demography.

One of Hume’s last mailers made not just a bi-partisan appeal but a multi-partisan appeal to District 5 voters. The mailer contained a directional signpost with various designations on the political spectrum.

Naturally, it contained political rivals, Democrats and Republicans, but others as well. For instance, it has Tea Party and Libertarian signs pointing right, and pointing left are signs for Socialists and the Green Party.

Now anyone with an iota of familiarity with conservative Hume knows he is anything but sympathetic to listening to Socialist or Green Party members, much less embracing their concerns. But, to be fair, for as conservative as Hume has been throughout his political career, his embrace of a Socialist or a Green is as likely as a Progressive Democratic candidate embracing the Tea Party Republicans or the anti-choice audience.

It just isn’t going to happen!

So is Hume’s appeal a clever ploy to present himself as something he has never been in his political career? Or is it a cynical last-minute attempt to siphon a few more unsuspecting independent voters away from his opponent Democratic opponent, Jaclyn Moreno?

The mailer claims Hume has brought together the “broadest collation of support ever.” The day a Socialist or Green Party member admits voting for Hume is the day Sen. Bernie Sanders joins Hume as a MAGA Republican.

We will probably never know if this strategy attracts more independent voters. But there is one thing for sure – any politicians on the extreme side of the political spectrum, in Hume’s case on the far right, will never attract their polar opposites to vote for them.

If moderate or independent voters fall for Hume’s or any other extremist candidate’s ploy, shame on them.