A good rule of thumb, if you have to keep explaining that you’re not a Communist, your campaign is not in a good place.

Rep. Karen Bass’ bid to become Biden’s VP is not in a good place.

“I’m not a socialist. I’m not a communist. I’ve belonged to one party my entire life and that’s the Democratic Party and I’m a Christian,” Bass told NBC News.

That was over the Castro stuff. Now there’s another, “I’m not a Communist” denial. But at least Bass’ spokesman knows enough not to use the C-word.

“Karen Bass has always been a Democrat and only a Democrat. The Congresswoman is friends with Kevin McCarthy and is not a Republican. She knew Oneil Cannon but never shared the political ideology he may have had at one time in his life,” Bass spokesman Zach Seidl wrote in a statement.

That ideology would be… Communism.

Oneil Cannon joined the Communist Party USA in the 1950s and was active for at least 30 years. As a member of the Communist Party USA, he became the education director in the Southern California District, and a member of the Party’s Southern California and National Central Committees.

This is the guy Bass called not just her friend, but her mentor.

When Rep. Karen Bass’ “friend and mentor” died three years ago, she eulogized the community organizer’s passing in remarks she inserted into the Congressional Record.

Left out of the 406-word eulogy: Cannon was a top member of the Communist Party USA for decades.

In her eulogy of Cannon, Bass attributed the trajectory of her politics to Cannon.

“Oneil was instrumental in supporting my own work as a community organizer early in my life, and without his help my life would have taken a very different path,” she said in the eulogy; she also called him a “friend and mentor” but did not mention his communist past.

Communist Party USA mourned Cannon’s loss on its Facebook page, saying he “participated in nearly every civil rights, labor and democratic struggle for nearly a century. He lived a partisan, committed life. RIP Oneil!!” It linked to an obituary from People’s World, a communist publication, that bore the headline “Oneil Cannon, longtime Communist, centenarian” and described him as the party’s “education director in the Southern California District, and a member of the Party’s Southern California and National Central Committees.”

If it walks like a duck, it might just be a Communist.