A lot of Knoxville and Knox County bloggers have been covering the ongoing debacle of elected officials here in town. I've refrained from really posting anything, because most everything of substance has been said or hashed out.
Almost.
If you don't live in Knoxville and Knox County, consider yourself lucky you don't live in an area as politically and procedurally primitive as ours.
Consider:
1) We can't get people to even read and understand the actual county charter that was voted on an implemented several years ago. Apparently the charter doesn't make provisions for some of the elected offices the previous government allowed for, but no one noticed this so they kept the offices anyway. Oops!
2) We have a variety of elected county commissioners who, knowing full well the Knox County voters decided to amend the charter a few years ago and implemented term limits, have decided the will of the people is invalid and have attacked the charter itself. Until this point, no one considered the charter in any way invalid - until their lawsuits that is. Now apparently only because a lawsuit was filed, the charter may be invalid.
In related news: George W. Bush, Bill Clinton and the ghost of Ronald Reagan recently filed suit in the Supreme Court alledging the US Constitution and the Bill of Rights are invalid - the dissolution of which would remove the pesky 2-term-limit for presidents.
Yes folks, that's the equivalent comparison. Scorched earth - if you're getting kicked out of the sandbox, then blow it up behind you.
And what's even more interesting... of the dozen or so incumbent County Commissioners who - by vote of the residents - are not allowed to run for another term, a number of the others not even involved in the lawsuit have refused to actually remove themselves from the ballot. Therefore, if the charter validity is upheld and term limits are allowed to continue, several of the commissioners who should not be running will still be on the ballot!
And in which case, if they are actually elected by a populace dumb enough to vote for them, they will not be able to serve and their local party office will decide who takes their place! Which means if Commissioner John Griess - a Republican incument term-limited commissioner from my district who has not removed his name from the ballot - is actually reelected to his seat, the local Republican party would nominate his successor. And that person would assume the Commission seat.
At least that's how I understand it. Corrections are welcome.
I would like to point out that Commissioner Wandy Moody (3rd district) is a friend of mine and attends my church. She is term-limited and decided early on to remove her name from the ballot. Good for her - she's one of the few.
All that means I will not under any circumstance vote for any term-limited incumbent still on the ballot. And even if for some strange reason the charter is declared invalid, term limits are stricken from the law, and the whole situation goes to higgly-piggly, I will still not vote for a commissioner who would have been term-limited.
Because those who decided to continue to run are thumbing their noses at the people who a) elected them in the first place, and 2) decided correctly to enact term-limits.
And if you live in Knox County, I would suggest you do the same.
UPDATE: I posted this on my duplicate Wordpress site (http://lasthome.wordpress.com/) and there are some good comments there with clarification of facts in which I was in error - please read.
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