We should have known.Yes, we should have known that New Orleans politics would not hand us a clean race, as the two men in the run-off for New Orleans mayor promised us. Just a few days after the general election, Ray Nagin and Richard Pennington, the top vote getters, promised together that the run-off would be clean and fair, with the voters deciding on merit, not demerit, who was best for mayor. But New Orleans Police Superintendent Pennington couldn’t stay true to his word for even a week. On the Monday before Mardi Gras, Pennington held an early-morning press conference stating that he had obtained damaging information on Ray Nagin’s past business dealings. However, in some sort of misguided political strategy, he would not release those findings until what he deemed to be the right time.Three days later, he laid it on us. And it turned out to be a big fat dud. Pennington launched a negative television advertisement, saying that Nagin used politics to exploit a program for disadvantaged businesses and grab profit from a rental car business at the New Orleans airport. Granted, if it had been proven that this was a blatant exploitation of poor businesses in the New Orleans area, then Nagin would have a great deal of explaining to do.As it turns out, the program was designed for disadvantaged businesses, but Nagin legally qualified under the rules.And Nagin gracefully explained that the advertisements were misleading, saying that his politics and connections obviously did nothing to help him get a contract for the car rental business, since he never got the business. So, Pennington had attempted to whet the appetites of the voting public, but had done little to follow through. At a debate just before the ads appeared, Pennington asserted that he was still in favor of a clean campaign. But how could he say that and then release ads that attempted to discredit his opponent with low political tactics? His words are totally inconsistent with his actions. Even so, Pennington still had a chance to stay the course after his unconvincing attack ads appeared by returning to the joint pledge of a clean campaign. But that, as we should have expected, did not happen.Last Friday, Pennington called yet another press conference to accuse Nagin of spreading a letter that accused Pennington of spousal abuse and substance abuse. Of course, Nagin immediately denied that he had any knowledge or part in the letter’s distribution.Typical. We really, honestly should have counted on the fact that the politics in this city would not have anything to do with a fair election. No, we have to be subjected to ridiculous attacks by one candidate on the other. And what is so ironic about it all is that it is making no difference in how people are going to vote. The latest polls have Nagin nearly 20 percentage points ahead of Pennington, almost the exact same amount he was up before the allegations about him arose. When will politicians smart up and see that what they have to offer us, not what the other candidate does not have, is what makes the difference? Pennington saw no other alternative but to try to convince us that Ray Nagin is some sort of corrupt businessman. But now Pennington is the one who seems to have been corrupted into cheap ploys and bells and whistles to try something, anything, to win a simple mayoral race. The shame of the whole thing is that Richard Pennington, who is widely respected in New Orleans as a man who restored safety to a considerably unsafe place and got by on his dignified reputation, felt that he must resort to politics to win an election when his platform during the entire race was that he wasn’t a career politician. Could have fooled me.