2008 Election Recommendations

Here are my recommendations for selected races.  Feel free to try to change my mind in the comments or add your own thoughts.

President

John McCain – He’s nothing great, but he’s better than Obama.

Congress, Alabama’s 5th District

Wayne Parker – Wayne is a solid conservative of impeccable character.  He can be trusted to represent this district well.  His opponent, Parker Griffith, is a man of questionable character who has proven himself to be an ineffective, hyper-partisan legislator.  In his two years as a state senator he pushed through a grand total of one bill and voted with his party over 99% of the time – more than even Nancy Pelosi.  And we can’t forget the peer review of Dr. Griffith’s medical records which were quite negative.  Oh, and Griffith thinks that “we have nothing to fear from radical Islam.”

Courts

No recommendations.  I don’t pretend to know enough about the various courts and what qualifications candidates should have for each.  I will say that I’ve met Dick Richardson, who is running for Madison County District Court, Place No. 4, and he seems like a swell guy.

Feel free to convince me why one god fearing, gun toting, conservative candidate is better than another god fearing, gun toting, conservative candidate other than going by the letters in parentheses by their names.

Madison County Commission

There are three critically important races for Madison County Commission – each of which pits underdog challengers against entrenched incumbents.  MadCo residents need to realize that even though we recently voted down a sales tax increase by a 2-1 margin the commission can still impose the increase if they choose to.  That’s right, they can override our decision.  Two county commissioners, Mike Gillespie and Jerry Craig, were in office in the mid 1980’s when residents voted down a similar tax increase.  Both commissioners afterward went against the public and voted to raise the sales tax.  Don’t let history repeat itself.

I will be voting for Dick French for County Commission Chairman.  Incumbent Mike Gillespie supported the most recent sales tax increase.  He will vote for it if given the chance.

Bob Long won a hard fought primary in District 1 and now faces Roger Jones.  Jones was a strong supporter of raising the sales tax; Long opposes the tax increase.

I will be voting for Mike Parsons for District 3.  Parsons is a retired career Air Force officer, where he flew as a combat pilot.  He is now teaching JROTC at Butler High School.  His military assignments have allowed him to manage massive, complex, high budget projects which gives him the training to be able to tackle any problems he may encounter on the commission.  He is a solid conservative who will fight to keep our taxes low.

Madison County License Commissioner

This is the first of two particular down ballot races that most voters don’t pay attention to.  Well, think back to when you last renewed your car tag.  Remember standing in line for an hour or more while employees file their nails, talk on the phone, and read magazines?  I’ve done that many times at the satellite branch in Madison on Hwy. 72.  The offices are staffed by employees from the license and property tax offices, but they aren’t allowed to cross over to serve customers.  The result is a long, slow line for one window and idle employees at other windows.

Susan Newman has run a vigorous campaign with the platform of cross training the employees in order to shorten wait times.  Her opponent, Mark Craig (son of County Commissioner Jerry Craig) has been in office for seven years and has done nothing to improve efficiency.  We’ve been standing in long lines the whole time he’s been in office, but now that it is election time Craig is promising to do something about it.  If he couldn’t figure out a way to speed things up in seven years I don’t think we should give him six more to try.

Madison County Tax Collector

I will be voting for Cory Brown.  Brown is running on a platform of merging the tax collector and tax assessor offices into a single position: a revenue commissioner.  He will step down once the offices merge.  The change would save taxpayers about $70,000 per year in salary in addition to benefits (insurance, car, etc.).  Most counties in Alabama use a revenue commissioner.