After hearing about the Malcolm Smith corruption case, I had think how absurd and delusional can one be about running for office.

1) Malcolm Smith could have become a Republican prior to Election Day in 2012. He could have dropped off his change of registration form on Election Day, and nobody would have ever noticed until the election was over. This way, he could have avoided needing the Wilson-Pakula, as he would be registered in the party that he wanted to run in the primary for their seat.

2) Malcolm Smith wasn’t likely to win the Republican Primary in his battle for City Mayor. The reality is that Joseph J. Lhota and John Catsimatidis were favored to win the Republican primary. Many republican leaders had come out in favor of those two candidates, so the idea that a Democrat running as a Republican could snap up the primary vote, just seemed absurd.

3) Even if Malcolm Smith went on to win the Republican primary, he would be running against the very popular Democrat, Christine Quinn, the Speaker of New York City Council. Malcolm Smith would have been a weak candidate, at best, running in a city that is overwhelmingly a Democratic city.

Basically, I can’t think of a way that Malcolm Smith could have reasonably expected to win the mayorality of NY City.