West: Get ready to vote

By MIKE WEST

Election Day is here...

And folks are getting, uh, a bit testy.

That’s understandable because there is a number of key positions up for grabs both locally and statewide, but that’s no reason to go overboard. Life is going to continue in familiar fashion after all the votes are cast.
It doesn’t matter if you vote Republican, Independent or Democrat. The outcome does matter, but like I said, life will continue despite who wins.

My late grandfather, Cling West, was a life-long Democrat. He served as Cannon County Sheriff back in the 1950s and as road superintendent until he retired. He had a long, and colorful career and lived into his 90s.

His son (and my father), WC changed parties during the 1990s and became quite a Ronald Reagan fan. That didn’t stop Grandpa Cling from constantly harassing him about Reagan and other GOP luminaries. “Pa” would set him up on an issue in the news and WHAM would knock it home whenever he got a chance.

Of course, WC’s sister, Helen, beat them all to the punch by marrying a man, Milton Alexander, who was a rarity in the day – a Republican in what was then strongly Democratic Cannon County. How Republican were they? They paid host to Gov. Winfield Dunn at their home outside of Woodbury. That’s Republican!

Governor Dunn’s visit was in the days just after when Cannon County Democrat Mr. Jim Cummings ruled state government as the Speaker of the House of Representatives.

Now, some 30 years later, the “party” status in Cannon County has done a complete turn-about. Republicans rule. (Democrats hide out.)

Give it another few decades and no-telling who will be leading our local and state governments. Maybe some true independents will appear?

Your guess is as good as mine on the national level. We might even have a female President by then, but I doubt if it will be Hillary Clinton.

So it goes....

What it boils down to is that the election of August 2014 has been an interesting one no matter who wins. And one thing that makes it interesting is all the backstage wrangling. By “wrangling,” I mean political strategy, or “strategizin’” as I call it.

By the next edition of The Courier, we will know who the winners are. Then we will know who’s strategy was the best. Generally, incumbents are favored because they know how the system works, but surprises do happen.
Do we have predictions? (Off the record ...maybe.)

You’ll have to get those elsewhere. (Yep, I am grinning.)

Which races are worth watching? All of them? That is pretty much the case. A goodly number of the local races are contested and some of them are literally too close to call. Heck, it’s even going to be interesting to see exactly what happens in the Tennessee State Supreme Court race. Will citizens vote to retain or replace the three open seats?