If it weren’t for a couple of primary battles taking place in New York City this season, the Virginia gubernatorial race between Republican Ken Cuccinelli and Democrat Terry McAuliffe might be nationally notable for the depressing, unintentional comedy it’s become. Erika noted this week that the Bill and Hillary approved Democrat has taken a substantial lead in recent polls, though the numbers leave a lot of questions unanswered. Professor Sabato described the race as already being in meltdown mode. But if you thought things were getting silly before, as National Review points out for us, we’re nowhere near the bottom of the barrel yet.

Virginia Beach police arrested a Ken Cuccinelli look-a-like at a local aquarium last weekend after employees noticed prosthetics glued to the impersonator’s face. According to the Virginian-Pilot, NextGen Climate Action Committee hired an actor to portray the Republican gubernatorial candidate as part of the super PAC’s larger effort to support his Democratic opponent, Terry McAuliffe.

When you click through to the original story you’ll find a full sized, higher resolution photo of the Cuccinelli impersonator. Trust me… we really didn’t need to bring in Nero Wolfe or Sherlock Holmes to suss this one out. That’s one of the worst “prosthetic” devices you’re going to see in terms of trying to pull off this type of impersonation. (For the record, the impersonator was release and no charges were filed.) But that may not be much of a surprise considering the other “political” tactics employed thus far by McAuliffe’s cash cow supporters.

An affiliated group also hired an airplane to fly a banner claiming Cuccinelli supported Brigham Young University over the University of Virginia football stadium as the teams played last weekend.

Airplane banners alleging support for the wrong football team? That’s your secret weapon? This race belongs more on Tru-TV as a weekly reality series than in the national political headlines at this point. But if McCauliffe is what the residents of “New Purple Virginia” want, then the old H.L. Mencken rule comes into play.

“Democracy is the theory that the common people know what they want, and deserve to get it good and hard.”