(Watch Jennifer’s Hot Button commentary)

Republican Jon Elrod abruptly quit the 7th District Congressional race last week and is now trying to defend his Statehouse seat, which he won by a mere handful of votes in 2006.

Elrod said he was quitting because he couldnt beat André Carson. That much is certain. Elrod ran a terrible campaign in the March special election, and there are plenty of Republicans mad at him for that lackluster effort.

Still, Elrod would have been better off losing again to Carson than trying to save face by backtracking to House District 97, a Democratic seat with a well-qualified Democratic candidate running this time around.

Politics is all about opportunity, Jon, but you have to be smart about it. When you’re dead, you stay dead. At least for an election cycle or two. You certainly dont flip-flop from one race to the next like its some sort of shameless game.

The people you represent in House District 97 - I’m one of them, by the way - expect more from their so-called representative. My grandpa used to call it stick-to-it-ive-ness. Im sure youll have plenty of time to figure it out after the November election.

Seventh District Congressional candidate and occasional State Rep. Jon Elrod held a press conference this morning to announce that he’s dropping out of the former race in an attempt to retain the latter seat.

Talk about your all-time dumb political moves.

Elrod, who almost certainly would have been crushed in the Congressional race, now looks like the world’s biggest flip-flopper, opening himself up to criticism that he’s just running for whatever office will get him to the next office he wants to run for.

As a resident of House District 97, I’m disappointed, and as a political hack, I’m shocked.

Hang it up, Jon. You gambled on the special election, ran a terrible campaign and lost. You don’t get to come back and pretend like you were representing me the whole time.

Heck, you weren’t even representing me while you were at the Statehouse running for Congress, and it’s not like you won by an overwhelming mandate back in 2006.

There’s a time to fade gracefully and a time to fight desperately. I guess we know which road Elrod is taking.