Not long ago a relatively complete Allosaurus skeleton was found in Colorado. It’s worth a lot of money and somehow ended up in the hands of a man named Michael Peroutka who donated it. To the Ken Ham’s Creationist Museum in Petersburg, KY. Guess what party he’s in?

Michael Peroutka, the Republican nominee in the District 5 council race, presented the fossils at the Creation Museum in Petersburg, Ky., near Cincinnati, over the Memorial Day weekend. Tax records show he valued the skeleton at $200,000, but the museum put its worth at $1 million.

Peroutka, 61, is a debt collection lawyer in Pasadena and former Constitution Party presidential candidate. He recently won the Republican nomination in District 5 by 38 votes. He will face Democrat Patrick Armstrong in the general election Nov. 4.

That part about the Constitution Party is telling. Many members of movements like the sovereigns and oath keepers and related groups adhere to a staunch, quasi-religious belief that public schools are more than bad policy, they believe taxpayer funded schools are illegal and … unholy, for lack of a better word. These cranks mostly stay in the shadows, surfacing now and then under the cover of hot button culture war issues, like when school prayer or sex ed rears its head. But some get funding from rich wackos who ostensibly share their views. The same kind of rich wackos who are up in arms over local taxes often based on property value that help pay for public education. Gosh, if only public opinion turned or was expertly massaged into turning against the entire concept of public schools, average fundamentalists could get Jesus back on his battle dinosaur and rich fundies would pocket a ton of cash in tax savings …  it’s a win-win!

Peroutka is running in Maryland, which is not the worst state when it comes to right-wing fueled pseudoscientific nonsense. Maybe there’s hope.