Tuesday, April 18, 2006

Not Dead Yet

Ok, you guys convinced me...well, maybe not permanently, but I'm at least gonna do some posts about these local races.

Solicitor's race - As alluded to in the comments, there's talk that Mo won't even run for reelection. Given the political makeup of Clarke County, it's unlikely that he'd defeat any of the potential challengers. (As an aside, why didn't Sonny respect this when appointing a replacement for Ralph? Sure, I guess the instinctive thing to do is to do a patronage appointment of someone in your own party in that situation. But he had to know that a Dem would win the election the very next year. Wouldn't some sort of continuity in the ACC Solicitor's Office be more important than whatever marginal political advantage Sonny might gain from appointing a R Solicitor in ACC? Then again, I guess that's the point; what happens here really doesn't matter to Sonny politically, so might as well reward an R. Ah, jeez, back to my post I guess).

As also mentioned, the confirmed candidates are C.R. Chisholm and Bill Overend, with Brian Patterson as a possible but as yet unannounced third. All are expected to run as Dems. CR has experience in the Solicitor's Office, and the other two have experience in the DA's Office (I believe BP is still there, although it's hard to keep up with the fast-food-esque turnover in that office). Those talking shop around the courthouse have CR pegged as the early favorite.

Rawson-Hudgens - I'm still learning about Rawson myself, but I wouldn't be so dismissive of his chances. He is a part of the local county party machinery, and we've certainly been critical of them in the past. However, Rawson also seems to be a serious-minded candidate who knows his stuff. Couple that with the right kind of campaign on the ground, and who knows what might happen. Rawson may be the guy to restore some credibility to the county party machinery.

More soon, although no guarantees on when exactly. Thanks for all the kind words everyone, and we'll try to keep at least some level of posting up with regard to these local elections.

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

as someone who has been associated (officially and unofficially) with the local Dems for more than 8 years, I saw this line and laughed out loud!

you wrote (about Rawson):
"...part of the local county party machinery... "

are you kidding me?! what "machinery" would that be? more like my grand-daddy's old worn out reel lawn mower - no motor, too dull to cut the grass, too heavy and slow to push, rusting out because nobody wanted to use it.

I'd love to see it get better - the local party, I mean - the lawnmower is yard art - but, with the lack of leadership they have, I ain't holding my breath.