Opinion: Do not vote for my dad! He gives chocolates filled with worms!

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Life is like a box of chocolates, according to Forrest Gump.

But according to the family of a district court judicial candidate in Oklahoma, life is like a box of chocolates filled with worms.

John Mantooth is fending off negative campaign attacks this week. Standard fare in politics. Except when the attacks are coming from your own family.

Mantooth’s daughter, Jan Schill, doesn’t support her dad’s candidacy. In fact, she’s so opposed she launched a website called DoNotVoteForMyDad.com.

What’s her beef?

“John Mantooth is NOT a good father, NOT a good grandfather, & in my opinion a review of his 37 year record at an attorney in Cleveland, Garvin, and McClain counties reveal that HE WOULD NOT BE A GOOD JUDGE!” she writes on the website.

That same note appeared in the local newspaper this week.

Her husband, Andrew Schill, is more graphic in his opposition. He takes issue with some Christmas chocolates Mantooth left for his daughter back in 2004. Everything was fine until the son-in-law bit into one them. Didn’t taste so good.

“My deepest momentary fear was realized when a survey of the remaining chocolate revealed the remains of the numerous worms and weevils that had long ago devoured the aged chocolate,” he writes.

It’s too bad they don’t have a campaign video. Schill’s next statement is written in textbook campaignese:

“Today, I would suggest that the question the voters of District 21 should be asking is, “if this is what Mr. Mantooth gives to his children, what would he give the people of District 21?” he asks.

Awesome.
What’s Mantooth’s take? No mention of the wormy chocolates. He just suspects they don’t support him because his son-in-law was once a law partner with his chief opponent, Greg Dixon.

‘That’s a very strange set of circumstances,’ Mantooth told the Associated Press. ‘For a person to believe that Greg Dixon had nothing to do with this is like trying to believe that cows give chocolate milk.’

With or without worms?

-- Jimmy Orr

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