Political developments unbelievable, aw, come on, really?

Stop me if you've heard some of this before, but the pending gubernatorial race has taken some strange, almost unbelievable turns in the last few days.

Aw, come on, really? The short time lieutenant governor -- picked a little more than a year ago to replace a lieutenant governor who resigned after news broke that he was misusing a state phone to call women who weren't his wife -- has himself resigned after it became public that his sister was granted a protection order against him in a lingering family dispute over farm land. The lieutenant governor also removed himself as the running mate for the Republican gubernatorial candidate, leaving a post-deadline hole in the ballot.

Aw, come on, really? The Republican gubernatorial candidate wasted little time in selecting a new running mate, announcing a few hours later that he had chosen the current state auditor. One has to wonder who knew what and when, given that the two men already had new campaign signs printed to distribute at the news conference. The auditor, by the way, had finished fourth in the six-way race to be the gubernatorial candidate in May. You have to wonder how his selection to be the number two guy on the ticket made the two candidates who actually finished ahead of him feel.

Aw, come on, really? State law said that the deadline to change the November ballot was September first. But the Republican secretary of state ruled a day later that the ballot could still be changed to remove the resigned lieutenant governor's name and replace it with the auditor's name to more accurately reflect the candidates on the ballot. The Democrat gubernatorial candidate and the chairman of the state Democratic Party protested, but have yet to file legal action. It's highly likely such a decision will be in the form of post-election relief depending on who wins. The Libertarian candidate for governor has filed a legal challenge in Lancaster County District Court. One critic of the secretary of state's move called it "extra-judicial and extra-legislative yet he (the secretary of state) is neither a judge nor legislator." The Democrat running for governor said he prefers to let the voters decide the election.

Aw, come on, really? The Republican candidate for Attorney General tried to intervene on behalf of the former lieutenant governor in the protection order matter by calling the sister's attorney and suggesting that the matter be handled privately before it went to court. When questioned by her attorney, the candidate admitted that he didn't know the lieutenant governor's sister, hadn't read her petition and was simply calling on behalf of his friend the lieutenant governor. He also asked if the sister had received a letter from the lieutenant governor that he was stepping away from the family squabble and suggesting that his sister and their two brothers all participate in family counseling. The lieutenant governor repeatedly said he had hoped to keep the issue a private family matter. But those who serve in public office know there is no such thing.

Aw, come on, really? The land in dispute in the former lieutenant governor's family is more than just farm ground. Some of it sits atop a rare deposit of niobium, a mineral used as an alloying agent in carbon and alloy steels to improve their strength. It has superconductive properties and could be used in large-scale generation of electricity. The company that hopes to mine it has described it as the highest-grade undeveloped deposit of the mineral in North America. Niobium hasn't been produced in the United States in significant amounts since 1959.

There are still five weeks before the election. Stay tuned. Lewis Carroll was right when he penned Alice in Wonderland saying, "Things just keep getting curiouser and curiouser."