EDITORIAL:

Seems like it’s always silly season with the perpetual elections.

Bad enough we have to listen to the presidential candidates bicker like children. But now this sort of semantic silliness has infected Newport-Mesa politics.

We are speaking of Mayor-gate.

The inane battle over whether Debbie Cook can use her honorific on the ballot for the congressional race this year is about the least-deserving controversy for the “gate” suffix that we can think of, so you can see we’re being sarcastic.

For those of you who have lives and don’t sit in your pajamas all day in Mom’s basement blogging about Cook’s campaign to unseat Rep. Dana Rohrabacher, here’s a recap:

Attorney Michael Schroeder, representing Keith Carlson, treasurer of the Orange County Republican Party, sued Cook and the Orange County of Registrar of Voters arguing that Cook shouldn’t be able to use her title on the ballot.

The case took a double hit this week. An appellate court first threw it out because the judges said Carlson sued the wrong people in the wrong venue. If at first you don’t succeed try, try again.

The lawsuit was refiled in Sacramento, where a judge on Friday tossed it again because Schroeder apparently didn’t properly serve Cook and because it lacked substance.

We’re not going to get into the merits of the lawsuit. Schroeder argued she can’t use the title because she’s not an elected mayor, and he cited the election code as back-up. She was elected to the City Council, but the council members in Huntington Beach annually take turns serving as mayor.

From a legal sense, maybe he had a point.

From a common sense standpoint, this is trivial and a distraction from the candidates talking about the issues.

We have a hard time believing the motivation was anything other than political.

It was revealing that when confronted with the fact that there are some Republican candidates running for office this year using the title of “mayor” in much the same way, Schroeder said he was unaware of that.

We’re pretty sure he won’t sue them.

The main reason this exercise was so silly is that it is ridiculous to suggest Cook’s title would somehow sway the election. Any congressional challenger — even one as well-known and as popular in past elections as Cook — always faces a tough battle to upend an incumbent. Especially one serving his ninth term in office. Especially a congressman as charismatic and well-known as Rohrabacher.

And from what we hear, many of the area’s top GOP leaders consider the whole challenge an exercise in futility because the risks of blowback far outweighed the reward.

“He’s done a great job to give her good name [recognition],” griped one local GOP activist.

Not to mention a fundraising tool for Cook who used the fracas to appeal to voters for contributions.

In the end, all that was accomplished was Carlson and Schroeder looked amateurish and petty and their opponent Cook came out looking like a winner. We bet that wasn’t what they set out to accomplish.

Next time, try to beat your political opponents on the issues instead of legal technicalities. We’re sure the voters will appreciate that more anyway. They get to make a decision on the merits without paying extra for a goofy sideshow.