Betty White running for office in Montco, and a controversial voice is back in the Inky

Betty White is on the ballot in Pennsylvania — NOT the “Golden Girl,” but a Marlborough Township Democrat, who we are told is running for a Montgomery County State House seat. I figure if you’re Betty, you put up a lot of posters without your picture.

Remember when Al Green won the Democratic nomination for U.S. Senate in South Carolina a couple years back? Though he was an unemployed guy facing a felony obscenity charge, no doubt some voters saw the name and remembered the legendary soul singer.

Well now Betty White is on the ballot in Pennsylvania. Not the “Golden Girl,” but a Marlborough Township Democrat, who the blogger Above Average Jane tells us is running for a Montgomery County State House seat. I figure if you’re Betty, you put up a lot of posters without your picture.

And remember Robert Patterson? No?

He was the special assistant to the Pennsylvania State Welfare Secretary who resigned in January after the Inquirer reported he was editor of a conservative, faith-based journal which aired some, um, unorthodox views – like the idea that using condoms could deny women the mood-enhancing benefits of chemicals in semen.

Well Patterson is back in the Inquirer, now as an occasional paid contributor to the paper’s Sunday Currents section. He had a piece Sunday on the benefits to Mitt Romney of choosing a social-values conservative as a running mate, and hosted an online chat on the subject Monday on Philly.com.

Assistant editorial page editor Kevin Ferris, who edits Patterson’s work, told me yesterday there’s nothing unusual about having folks with controversial views in an opinion section.

And here’s an interesting item from Keegan Gibson of PoliticsPa – The Obama campaign has created a character named Julia, a generic American woman the campaign uses to compare how the president’s policies would affect her at every stage of life (positively), in contrast to Mitt Romney’s policies (surpisingly, not so good).

Nobody I asked had even heard of Julia, but it apparently was a powerful enough tool that the Pennsylvania Republican party has responded with a web video of real women who introduce themselves and say essentially that Julia is full of beans. You can see the Julia stuff and the video at Keegan’s post.