'Santa' Bentivolio elected to House, but not trusted with a 6-week stint on Capitol Hill

In case you missed it, tea party candidate Kerry Bentivolio, the eccentric reindeer rancher and part-time Santa, won the 11^th Congressional District race but lost the separate election to fill the seat for the final six weeks of the year.

In other words, voters in Oakland and Wayne counties elected Bentivolio by default but, when they were offered a decent alternative, those same voters did not trust the 11^th District office to Bentivolio for even six weeks.

Here’s an explanation of this sad situation: incumbent Rep. Thad McCotter resigned in July, forcing a special election to choose a replacement for the remainder of his term; in a bizarre twist, that election was decided by voters on Tuesday, on the same ballot that included a full 2-year term for the 11^th District post; Bentivolio was running in both elections but he faced two different Democratic opponents.

Though Bentivolio, a Milford Republican, has a checkered past, apparently his big break came when Dr. Syed Taj emerged as his Democratic opponent for the full term. Taj, a Canton Township board member, was clearly a weak candidate who was hampered by an unusual name, a heavy accent, and a smear campaign that tried to link him to a terrorist group.

But Bentivolio’s Democratic opponent for the short term, which ends Dec. 31, was David Curson of Belleville, a longtime international representative for the UAW. Curson won the election and got his wish: a chance to play a part in the congressional fix of the impending “fiscal cliff.”

And I suppose Bentivolio, who has admitted he sometimes believes he really is Santa Claus, got his wish too: Time off at Christmas so he can deliver toys to all the good girls and boys.