The headline from the New York Post even caught me by surprise. “George Santos files paperwork for 2024 House reelection bid.” I had to stop myself from muttering something along the lines of ‘the nerve of this guy.’ But then I remembered that there is seemingly no limit to the nerve of this guy as he has made clear since the moment he started generating embarrassing headlines around the country. Besides, his endless trail of lies and fabrications managed to get him elected once. Who’s to say it might not work again? (Or at least that’s a possible thought that could be percolating inside of his head.) But reading further into the story, this may be more of a formality than a serious attempt at securing another term.

He wouldn’t … would he?

Lying Long Island GOP Rep. George Santos filed paperwork to run for re-election Tuesday, despite a federal investigation into his campaign’s finances and a House ethics probe stemming in part from his fibs about his background.

Santos, 34, quietly submitted his statement of candidacy for New York’s 3rd Congressional District to the Federal Election Commission amid ongoing calls to resign from his fellow lawmakers.

The first suggestion that this might not be any sort of campaign announcement can be gleaned from the complete lack of fanfare involved. Santos himself didn’t comment on the filing and his office didn’t return requests for comment. We wouldn’t have even known it happened if the Post hadn’t been monitoring the mandatory FEC publications. If he was really running for reelection, wouldn’t he want people in his district to know about it?

The second clue comes with an obscure FEC rule that set yesterday as the deadline for filing an announcement by any candidates that have raised more than $5,000 for the new campaign cycle. George Santos has apparently raised more than that amount and he would once again face campaign finance impropriety charges if he collected any more donations without checking this box.

Of course, that begs an obvious question. Who in their right mind is donating money to George Santos at this point? And how much has he collected? If he’s been “loaning” more of his magical, seemingly endless wealth from undisclosed sources to his own campaign, he could have waited a while before doing that. That’s particularly true if he’s not really doing any “campaigning” and spending cash.

It pains me to say it, given the generally dysfunctional nature of the state party, but the New York GOP needs to get its act together on this issue sooner rather than later. New York’s Third Congressional District is a swing district now. Santos didn’t carry it with much of a margin to spare and if he’s not totally unelectable at this point, then nobody is. The party needs to see who they have on the bench and find somebody who looks electable and is willing to commit to making a serious primary run.

That person should have an immaculate and thoroughly vetted resume and the party needs to make it clear in a very loud fashion that George Santos is no longer welcome to darken its doorway. The candidate would be able to run on a very simple platform. ‘My resume is real and I’m not George Santos.’ It would be a shame to give the seat back to the Democrats just because of Santos’ bizarre predilections. And they don’t have to if they get out in front of this early.