Death becomes our politicians.

A big shout out to Dennis Hof who overcame the severe handicap of being dead to win election in District 36 of the Nevada State Assembly.

District 36 sits inside Nye County, Nevada. The county’s principal city, Pahrump, is a solid hour’s drive east to Las Vegas. It is home to 36,000 Nevadans, wedged on the Nevada-California border and ominously and perhaps auspiciously, Death Valley lies nearby. Pahrump became noteworthy (at least to me) as a part-setting and general den of inequity for the television drama, Get Shorty.

Hof enjoyed his 72nd birthday celebrations three weeks ago in Pahrump in the company of porn star Ron Jeremy, and recently pardoned former Maricopa County Sheriff Joe Arpaio, and died the following day.

Death became Dead Dennis. He not only won but won in a landslide. The obvious conclusion is the Democrat candidate, Lesia Romanov, may not have been entirely compelling. But here’s the rub — Hof, in a state of the deepest repose, was seen as a better candidate dead than alive.

The denizens of District 36 were not altogether comfortable casting a vote for a man who owned seven legal brothels.

But dead he was just fine, and the punters came out and voted for him in droves. Dead Dennis received 68 per cent of the vote. Had Still Vaguely in the Vertical Dennis run, it may have gone down to the wire.

What’s next? A dead Abe Lincoln to emerge from his tomb in Springfield Illinois? Dead Thomas Jefferson and dead George Washington to battle it out in Virginia’s sixth district for another shot at the title?

Worse things could happen.

Full column here.