The recent public airing of Rochester Town Board member Manuela Mihailescu's bankruptcy proceedings by "Rational of Rochester" on a local Ulster County blog clarified a couple of points for us all. The first is that political nastiness of the Karl Rove-variety has taken hold at the local level, at least in Rochester. The second is the alarming scale of the Mihailescu debt, as recorded in the now-publicized bankruptcy proceedings.

While Mihailescu was not among the worst of offenders in recent American debt accumulation — there are no boats, no flashy jewelry, no Florida beachfront property in the bankruptcy filing. However, when one's income is barely $2,000 a month and one's monthly expenditures balloon to over $10,000, you're heading for disaster.

The upshot of the airing of Mihailescu's financial dilemma seems to point to the candidate's inability to manage her finances, leading those looking on at the whole drama to assume that she may be, as a result, unfit to hold office.

But the reason for all of this mud is Mihailescu's quite reasonable objection to the political carve up in District One between Republicans, Independents, and Democrats. A backroom deal was made a few months ago between the major parties to cross-endorse, thereby deciding to go around the voters completely and make sure the 'right' people won the election without any of that disturbing democracy business getting in the way.

It's a pretty sorry state of affairs to conduct politics this way, when otherwise decent people think they can get away with playing dirty.

It's like the old saying goes: when you point a finger, three point back at you. The way in which this information came to light — anonymous posts on blogs and mysterious packages delivered to town board members — reveals Mihailescu's opponents to be sneaky and underhanded. If Mihailescu is indeed unfit, this incident shows that those who would seek to end her political career are themselves deplorable. In short, by trying to show that Mihailescu shouldn't hold office, they've revealed themselves to be poor arbiters of good taste and democracy.

In the end, even if she can't manage her money, it's not as though she's alone in that boat. If nothing else, the financial difficulties she's currently going through can be seen as a mirror image of the economic disaster the nation has suffered as a whole, with citizens living well above their means, and then trying desperately to bail out the boat by the time the waters of debt have all but sunk them.

Would Mihailescu seem like a stronger candidate for political office if her finances were in order? Yes. But in trying to discredit her, all her opponents have managed to do is make the case for a harsher look at our local politics and the nasty practices that go on. It's sad to say that this is nothing new. During last year's run for Ulster County Executive, Republican-endorsed candidate Len Bernardo received an envelope full of ants in the mail — some kind of sick and twisted message that was, at least, free of the personal attacks from which Mihailescu suffering. In truth, there will be no winners after the election this fall, no matter who gets to sit in the county seats…least of all the voters in Ulster County.