Sen. David Vitter has a last-minute challenger in his GOP primary, a retired Louisiana supreme court judge named Chet Traylor who got into the race citing Vitter’s admitted involvement with a D.C. prostitution ring as a moral failing. But Traylor has a colorful past of his own, reports the New Orleans Times Picayune.

Let me see if I can explain the story, as it is a bit complicated. A Democratic state representative named Noble Ellington was married to his wife Peggy McDowell for 35 years, until the mid-1990s. Then, Ellington alleges, she left him after becoming involved with Traylor, a friend of Ellington’s. Whatever the starting date of the relationship was, Traylor and McDowell did indeed get married after her divorce. Then, after 13 years of marriage, she died. Traylor has now taken up with Denise Lively, the estranged wife of Ellington’s son Ryan. From the story:

“He’s running on family values,’ Noble Ellington said of Traylor, whom he describes as someone who was a close friend for 20 years beginning in the mid-1970s. “He’s been mixed up with a number of families. He’s had a lot of practice, I guess.”

Traylor said he played no role in the breakup of either Ellington marriage and said the issue has no place in the Senate campaign. “It just breaks my heart that they’re going to start talking about a woman who’s not here to defend herself,” Traylor said of his dead wife. “She was a lady in every way, and I miss her terribly.”

At least no one can say Traylor lacks family values. He seems to put great value on knowing the spouses of the Ellington family.