The guests at the Washington banquet were just getting their dessert when the image of a woman named Sally Nungesser appeared on two enormous video screens. The videotape of Nungesser showed her standing at a podium making strange facial expressions — twitching her eyebrows, crinkling her nose, pursing her lips.

An ominous voice-over began: “Sally Nungesser wants to be insurance commissioner. But she was fired from her job at the Insurance Guaranty Association. Why? Because Sally Nungesser funneled more than half a million dollars in taxpayers’ money to her boyfriend. Then she physically attacked her elderly secretary because the secretary wouldn’t destroy public documents.” Bold letters summed up Sally Nungesser’s life so far: “Lied. Fired. Out of Control. The truth is, we can’t trust Sally Nungesser to be insurance commissioner.” As the lights came up on the smoking rubble of what was once Sally Nungesser, an appreciative silence gave way to prolonged applause from the several hundred people in attendance.