What happened to clean campaigns?

I am a registered Republican and have voted that way for the most part in every election.
I did so in this past election and was one of many who was disappointed when Obama won the presidency.
We have not taken this defeat graciously and accepted the accuracy of the ballots, especially when Acorn's methods have been called into question in getting registered Democrats living and dead to the polls.
Lately, for how many months I cannot remember, there has been a Republican commercial saturating the TV channels.
The Republican Party of Florida (RPOF) claims responsibility for the statements made against Alex Sink, that she is not one of us, but one of them.
As far as I know, Sink has not responded to the claims of making more than $8 million and costing thousands of jobs in the workforce.
I applaud her for keeping her quietness and dissing them, thereby making them the bad guys with dirty politics.
I did not know who she was or what office she might be running for until I Googled her name and found that she will be running against Republican Bill McCollum for the office of Florida's governor.
I guess this is the type of politics that we can expect from the Republicans in the next election.
I have decided to likely change my registration to independent and vote for the most qualified person regardless of party affiliation.
Bill McCollum has not claimed responsibility for the commercial being run, which must cost millions of dollars with the saturation of TV channels and times run each day.
I would suggest to everyone wanting more information to Google the names and see who is who and what is being said by various factions of the press and parties.
I personally want both parties to do fair and make the campaigning informative. Tell us what your candidate has done in the past and what he/she plans to do in his/her time in office.
Those who refrain from name calling, slandering ads, and dirty politics will get my vote.
This split on health care reform is split virtually straight down party lines. Evidently, there is a law of survival in politics saying that vote contrary to us and you will no longer get support in re-election campaign funds. Also, many will only guarantee their support only with pork promised to their districts.
Legal fees
A man walks into a lawyer's office and asks how much the barrister's rates are. The lawyer says $50 for three questions.
The man asks, "Isn't that awfully expensive?"
"Yes," the lawyer replies, "what's your third question?"
Bad math
Rick, fresh out of accounting school, went to an interview for a good paying job.
The company boss asked various questions about him and his education, but then asked him, "What are three times seven?"
"22," Rick replied. After he left, he double-checked it on his calculator, he knew he should have taken it to the interview, and realized he wouldn't get the job.
About two weeks later, he got a letter that said he was hired for the job! He was not one to look a gift horse in the mouth, but was still very curious.
The next day, he went in and asked why he got the job, even though he got such a simple question wrong.
The boss shrugged and said, "Well, you were the closest."
Raleigh Whiteman, of Lake Placid, is a contributing writer to Highlands Today. You can reach him on the Internet at rwwhiteman@comcast.net