Derrick Shepherd has some good points

Have to admit his campaign push to restore citizenship rights to ex-offenders is not a bad cause.

Shepherd, a former state senator and representative whose 2008 felony conviction and two-year prison term for money laundering seem to prevent him from running for the District 87 seat, was still upbeat despite 24th Judicial District Judge Stephen Enright’s morning ruling to disqualify him.

“I’m optimistic. That’s the best word for it,” Shepherd said, with his appeal and a separate constitutional challenge to the law that prohibits him from running both slated for decisions next week.

“I respect his ruling; I just think he’s incorrect, and I look forward to them hearing the merits of the constitutional argument,” Shepherd said. “I just want to tell everybody who’s praying for me that the fight isn’t over yet.”

Assuming he defies the odds, early indications are that Shepherd’s campaign will focus on a story of redemption and that, rather than run from his admission that he took $140,000 from the sale of fake bonds, he’ll embrace it as a mistake he’s determined to atone for.

Because I like democracy, I'm pretty much with him... right up to the part where he thinks he ought to be elected to something. Then, not so much.