Decision Day

Today is election day in Tennessee, I wonder how many of my peers have either early voted or will be voting today? The ballot is extremely long, actually too dang long. It took three days for me to complete my ballot. Seriously, I voted absentee due to my trip so, I would wait until late at night, when I could not sleep and worked on my ballot. It was like counting sheep, lights out.....

The bulk of the ballot seems to be selecting Appellate Court Judges, both criminal and civil. At first I was going to just vote yes to all of them, actually I did, then, I started marinating on the fact that I did not know who these folk were, and recalled a few Appeals court rulings that I took exception too, plus the fact that I was bored as hell in my dorm room, so I decided to look these people up.

I wanted to know what they looked like (if I recall out of all those Appeals Court Judges, only one was a brotha, no sisters and no more than 5-6 woman.) I wanted to know where they went to undergrad and law school and what civic groups they belonged to. Did it help me any? It did, to be honest, I could somewhat tell, based on the type of organizations they belonged, and even church affiliations, who might be my type of judge. My analysis could be flawed, but it was the best way I could get a feel for who they were, plus I was not bored enough to start looking up opinions. I think I could tell who were the liberal judges and who the conservative folk were. So based on that, and my gut, I cast a yea or nay vote for each judge. Oh, I can't lie, appearance did play a minor part in my analysis but not much.

Congress - Whew, I got frat running, personal acquaintances, social acquaintances, mentors all in the mix. I have been marinating on this vote for a long while. Was I to be loyal to my frat brother (Stanton), would I follow my very early prediction that the right woman could win before (Tinker) got in and support a woman, would I vote for established leadership (Bolton/Cohen), or could I support one of the other political newcomers? Early in the campaigns while I was in Memphis, I appeared at a lot of different events for each of the candidates, because truly, I wanted to genuinely support those folk. I felt weird because I know people were like he's trying to play sides, or that fool spying on my camp, but it really was not like that. I was invited to alot of things, scheduled on the same day, and I did my best to show up. I am glad I was in London during the thick of the elections, cause I am sure I would have been pressured into doing some campaign work for one candidate. In the end who did I vote for? Get closer to your monitor....can you hear me? No? Good. Toughest vote on the ballot.

Local criminal and civil judges - I think I made it clear I was supporting Carlee McCullough (u should too) for Chancery Court. I worked with Carlee for two years while with the City. The woman is extremely bright, confident, and her educational and professional experience is impressive. When she advised me she was running, there was no doubt that I was going to support her. Her opponent and others have been trying to hate on her based on who she was married to, her age, her experience as an attorney and whatever bs they could come up with. Bottom line, she will be a make a very competent Chancellor, I hope other voters share my opinion. Other incumbent Judges or candidates I think worthy of mentioning are Judge Gwen Rooks in criminal, Judge Bailey, Judge Stokes in Circuit Ct. I do hope those other candidates that I know personally pull off victories.

Senate - I still have beef with Harold Ford Jr., strictly based on his voting record. I know he voted half the way he did to show those in East Tennessee that he was not your average liberal democrat. That is the only way he will win is if he abandons his base, which he did oh so long ago, and gets support from those in Nashville and on up the road in Knoxville and those other backwater towns.....I hold the hope that if he indeed becomes my Senator, he will wake up and get with the program and become a Democrat once again.

Sheriff - I gotta roll with Reginald French, I think he deserves a chance. Lets see all those clerk spots, I could care less, but I do hope that Sondra Becton pulls off a victory, along with Steve Mulroy (One of my professors) running for County Commissioner and my old classmate Errol Harmon who is running for a State Representative position.

I am probably forgetting about some positions, but I wish all of the candidates I have supported good luck. I do expect a lot from them once they are in office.

If you are reading this and you are from Memphis, I hope you exercised your right to vote. If you have not, I think you have until 7:00. I am not gonna give you an old civil rights lecture on what it took for us to get the right to vote, just do it. Do it! Get up! Go, the clock is ticking........