Political Thermometer

The heat of political races, both for the county general election and the state/federal primary on August 3, is rising right along with the temperature outside.

Other political news is getting hot too: former County Commissioner Bubba Scarbrough is in trouble again (and still). Shelby County poll worker Verline Mayo was running from the law, wanted for her role in a Memphis election fraud case (see Ophelia’s Fine Mess for older links).

Locally:
The League of Women Voters of Oak Ridge is hosting two candidate forums next week. On Tuesday, candidates for Chancellor (Lantrip and Ramsey), General Sessions Judge Div. 1 (Stuart and Layton), Juvenile Court Judge (Meldrum and Hess), District Attorney (Clark, Hunt, and Coria), Trustee (Stair and Archer), and Sheriff (White v. White) will face off in the Roane State auditorium in Oak Ridge (across from Home Depot and the new National Fitness Center).

On Thursday, candidates for Anderson County Commission and School Board from the three Oak Ridge districts will go through the same process, at the same place.

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Not long ago, I ran across some interesting statistics on the number of court cases in Anderson County, which is the entire 7th Judicial District.

The courts have no backlog of criminal cases. Only three criminal cases went to trial between July 1, 2004 and June 30, 2005, the last full year in which records are available. The courts have no need to increase the number of days available for criminal trials.

The office Chancellor Lantrip’s opponent now holds, that of Anderson County District Attorney, brought only three criminal cases to trial that year. Why is he urging that the days available for criminal trials increase?

Excellent question. Of course, since we’re going to have a new DA, it seems possible that we might actually have a few more criminal trials after this election… and that’s a good thing.

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In the US Senate primary, Bryant, Hilleary, and Tennessee Right to Life are piling on Bob Corker, saying he’s misleading voters by calling himself “pro-life” because he would make exceptions for rape and incest.

Anyone who would not make such an exception is a heartless monster. Somehow it seems that Republicans have lost their way, forgetting the third basic principle of their own philosophy:

Government activities should be limited to those things that people cannot do at all, or cannot do so well for themselves.

Check back: I’m tracking down something very interesting on the local scene.

2 thoughts on “Political Thermometer

  1. Pingback: State And Federal Criminal Records

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