EXTRA: How many would vote for Hitler? Maybe now we know for sure

Call it a tacky joke, if you will.

JONES: Returning to political obscurity

But I can remember newsroom humor on Election Days of the past when particularly ideologically-conservative candidate would run.

WE'D TAKE A look at the number of votes they'd get, and say, "Now we know how many people would vote for Hitler, if he were on the ballot."

Which is the thought that popped into my head Tuesday night when I saw just how many people thought Art Jones was worthy of their vote for a seat in Congress -- the Illinois 3rd district seat, to be exact.

Jones is the long-time white supremacist who managed to get himself the Republican nomination to run for Congress earlier this year. Which means he was up for election on Tuesday. He lost to Rep. Dan Lipinski, D-Ill., who will return to Congress representing Chicago's Southwest Side and surrounding suburbs.

For the record, Jones had a preliminary vote tally of 53,415 -- which was about one-quarter of the total ballots cast. About the usual percentage for a losing candidate.

THAT WOULD MEAN a certain number were willing to put aside Jones' racist rants and hateful rhetoric (and one-time membership in the American National Socialist Workers Party) about Jewish people and merely regard him as just another Republican.

And yes, "national socialist" is what Na-zi is short for.

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