Brian Poindexter is a Democratic congressional candidate in Ohio's 7th District. He's a union ironworker, a Brook Park City Councilman, and an apprenticeship instructor at Ironworkers Local 17. He's also, according to police records, a man who was arrested for attempting to swallow crack cocaine during a traffic stop and who slapped a stranger at a Cleveland Indians baseball game.

Those are two separate incidents, by the way. The man contains multitudes.

Poindexter is campaigning to unseat Republican incumbent Max Miller in one of the most closely watched House races in the country. And suddenly the blue-collar everyman narrative that Democrats have been carefully constructing around Poindexter's candidacy has a crack-shaped hole in it.

Poindexter has previously acknowledged what he calls youthful mistakes — a misdemeanor assault charge and two misdemeanor disorderly conduct charges, one of which he pleaded no contest to and another that was dismissed. That framing worked fine when the story was "working-class guy got into a couple scraps when he was young." It works considerably less fine when the story becomes "congressional candidate tried to destroy drug evidence by eating it during a traffic stop."

The slapping incident at the Cleveland Indians game adds a layer that almost feels like parody. Poindexter allegedly struck Bob Rzepka — a stranger — at the ballpark.

Democrats have invested heavily in Poindexter's candidacy. He's been positioned as a serious challenger to Miller, with national media running profiles about how he "wants to win on his own terms" and framing the race as a potential pickup. Reason magazine ran a piece in August headlined that Miller could lose his seat. CBS News gave Poindexter airtime. The narrative was set: scrappy union guy versus embattled Republican.

Nobody in that media blitz thought to run the man's police records first.

The "party of norms and decency" talking point has taken a beating over the years, but there's something almost admirable about the consistency. We had a Senate candidate in Indiana arrested for cocaine possession while canvassing door-to-door back in April. Now we've got an Ohio House candidate whose rap sheet includes trying to eat crack during a traffic stop and assaulting a random person at a sporting event. The pattern isn't that Democrats have candidates with baggage — every party does. The pattern is that nobody on their side bothers to check the bags before putting them on the conveyor belt.

Poindexter is still running. Ohio's 7th District is still competitive. And somewhere, a Democratic campaign strategist is staring at a spreadsheet trying to figure out whether "attempted to swallow crack cocaine" polls better or worse than "slapped a stranger at a baseball game."

The answer, for what it's worth, is that it doesn't matter which one polls worse. They're on the same resume.