A mailer went out to Tampa, Florida residents stating that mayoral candidate, Rose Ferlita, is unfit for office. Why? Well, for starters, she’s single.
The mailer makes claims on her personal reasons for remaining unmarried, stating that it’s because she’s made her political ambitions (note that they don’t say career) a priority. Her single status also prompts the mailer to state she has “suspect family values” which could be an insinuation of lesbianism. Not only does the mailer presume to know why Rose Ferlita’s single it also marks her ambition as a negative trait. The simple misogynistic logic being: woman with career goals = unmarried ballbreaker = lesbian = unfit for office.
Making the story even more bizarre is that these mailers weren’t made by a right-wing extremist group. Rose Ferlita is the conservative candidate in the race and the fliers were sent out by “Less Government Now;” a 527 political action group (meaning they can accept an unlimited amount of donations as long as they don’t advocate for any specific candidate) that’s connected to Scott Maddox, a democrat candidate who last year convinced a friend to enter the running as a fake tea party candidate in order to split the Republican vote. Whether or not Ferlita’s opposition knew about the flier is unclear. Mayoral candidate Bob Buckhorn has condemned the flier but the attack wasn’t spurred by extremist right wing ideology. Instead, it used the extreme right wing rhetoric surrounding family values in order to target conservative voters to not vote for the conservative candidate. Let’s hope the electorate of Tampa, Florida doesn’t fall for it. Let “Less Government Now” know that it’s not okay to judge a woman candidate on her marital status. Courtesy of Sociological Images.
