Crossword Genius

Poor Democrat is with Scomo's predecessor (6)

Ross

I believe the answer is:

dismal

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'poor' is the definition.
(dismal can mean poor or bad-quality)

'democrat is with scomo's predecessor' is the wordplay.
'democrat' becomes 'd'.
'with' is a charade indicator (letters next to each other).
'scomo's predecessor' becomes 'mal' (I can't justify this - if you can you should give a lot more credence to this answer).
'd'+'is'+'mal'='DISMAL'

Can you help me to learn more?

(Other definitions for dismal that I've seen before include "Gloomy and cheerless" , "'Depressing, grim (6)'" , "Sad and dreary" , "Gloomy, dreary" , "Very disappointing" .)

I've seen this clue in the Sydney Morning Herald.
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