That means that the only day left to vote is this Thursday August 3rd.  Not Tuesday, but THURSDAY.

You can’t vote at an early voting site either (unless your regular precinct polling place happens to also be an early voting site).  You have to vote at the polling place listed on your voter registration card.  If you can’t find the card, here’s a website where you can find where you vote.  (On the left side bar, under “Information” is a link called, “Find Where I Vote.”  Click on that link.)

Share This

Early voting turnout as of Thursday in heavily Republican Williamson County was only 2.2% of registered voters. 

In Davidson County the result was a slightly better 3.7%.  However, what has struck me as surprising about Davidson County’s results is that more than twice as many people have voted in the Democratic primary, where the Governor, Senator, and Congressional races are practically unopposed, than in the Republican primary (9,018 v. 4,363).

What does it mean? 

Are Republicans turned off by a negative U.S. Senate Republican primary race where charges and countercharges are the chosen currency instead of issues? 

Are Republicans angry at a Republican Congress that has spent money like out-of-control drunken sailors?  (And to be fair to my Navy friends, sailors, when they’re drinking, at least are spending their own money.) 

Are Republicans mad at a Republican President who, nearly five years into a war on terrorism, hasn’t gotten around to doing anything about securing our nation’s borders? 

Are Republicans exasperated at a Republican President who has happily signed frivolous multi-billion dollar spending bills like the massive transportation pork bill, but just now has finally decided to use his veto pen for the first time on a small funding bill for stem cell research?

Or are Republicans stupefied by a national Republican leadership that in the midst of an ongoing war in the Middle East, rising national debt, rising energy prices, rising medical costs, and a looming Social Security collapse, has decided that the best thing to do was to try to pass two doomed constitutional amendments to ban flag burning and gay marriage?

I think all of the above.

If this low turnout is indicative of things to come in November, I’d sure hate to be a Republican candidate in a down-ticket race.

Share This

You are invited to Bob Krumm’s GOP primary victory party at Brown’s Diner on Thursday August 3 from 7:00 pm until a winner is announced.

Brown’s Diner, a Nashville institution, is at 2102 Blair Blvd on the corner of 21st Avenue opposite the Hillsboro Village Harris Teeter.

Come gather with us and hoist a few beers in celebration of a primary victory, and in anticipation of a long and exciting general election campaign.

Share This

Saturday is the last day to early vote.  It looks like the rain has stopped, so I encourage you to get out there and vote today. 

Here are the early voting locations:

Green Hills Library

Edmondson Pike Library

Howard School

Bordeaux Library

Hermitage Library

Madison Library

The regular election day is this THURSDAY August 3rd.  You can see where your regular polling location is by going to the link called “Find Where I VOTE” on the lower left hand side under “Information”.

Keep in mind that due to construction, if your regular polling place is Belle Meade City Hall, you will vote this time at Immanuel Baptist Church on Belle Meade Boulevard.

Also, if you are in precinct 24-3 (in the Montgomery Bell Academy neighborhood), your new polling place is the West End Fire Station.

Here is a copy of the ballot in Davidson County. 

For more information, here is the link to the Davidson County Election Commission’s website.

Share This

I was interviewed today by John Dunn of Fox 17.  Watch for me on Thursday evening’s 9:00 news.

Let me know how you thought it went.

UPDATE:

Here’s a transcript of the story.  I was fairly pleased.  But if you didn’t see it on air, you missed the shots of my hairy, white legs while I walked by the camera to my bike. 

. . . Maybe you’re better off just reading the transcript.

Share This

Eminent domain and property rights are back in the news, and this time the news is good.

In Norwood, Ohio, an industrial suburb of Cincinnati, three landowners held out against a proposed land redevelopment project.  The city claimed eminent domain, using not “blight” as a justification, but “deteriorating” conditions. 

Ohio’s Supreme Court, struck down the overly broad law allowing such a seizure saying

[The law] had become so vague that it was, in effect, “a standardless standard;” and it did not allow property owners the right to appeal the taking until the property was already taken.

According to John Echeverria, director of the Environmental Law and Policy Institute at Georgetown University, ”The ruling makes Ohio one of 10 states whose constitutions prohibit eminent domain simply to expand the tax base.”

Eminent domain is a useful tool.  Without it, many people would be without access to roads and utilities.  However, using eminent domain to change a neighborhood is so invidious because it’s your government saying to you:

“This would be a better place if only you didn’t live here.”

You don’t have to ponder too long before you can think of the many obvious targets of such an elitist attitude.

Share This

This morning we ran our first television ads.  They will appear on CNN and Fox News for now.  I don’t think the ad will win any Oscars, but it gets the message across.

Share This

Here’s an issue I’m torn on:  electing judges.

On the one hand, I support giving people much more direct control over their government.  On the other hand, it’s tough to know who all these people are, much less, what the position is that they are running for.

What I do know is that the present system contains within it opportunities for the appearance of impropriety.  Case in point is today’s Sheila Burke article in the Tennessean:

Fundraising receptions for some of Nashville’s soon-to-be-judges are drawing fire from critics, who question why lawyers who would come before the judges’ courts are being asked to pay up.

These unopposed candidates are trying to pay off their campaign debts — or pay back their own funds that they’ve sunk into their races — by having fundraisers at which donors, many of them lawyers, are asked to give money.

And while there’s nothing legally wrong with the practice, which is said to be commonplace, some think it just looks plain bad and further undermines confidence in the courts.

Others wonder whether the receptions are tantamount to buying justice.

. . . “If attorneys are dumping money into unopposed judicial races, it certainly raises suspicion that Tennessee’s legal system may also be for sale,” [said TN Center for Policy Research president, Drew Johnson.]

A couple months ago, local blogger and attorney Roger Abramson wrote about why he wasn’t even voting in the May judges primary.  He laid out a good case for why there shouldn’t be partisan judicial races.

. . . there’s just something unseemly about someone who is supposed to be impartial on the job going around trolling for votes from people and getting endorsements from groups. For similar reasons, I also have a real problem with judges running under partisan banners.

As for me, I haven’t yet early voted.  I know who I’m voting for in all of the races on the first page of the ballot, but I haven’t had time to figure out what to do with many of the judicial races. 

Are partisan judicial races, and our current system of election funding a problem?  If so, what are potential solutions?

Share This

Last night I attended an Israel Solidarity Gathering at the Gordon Jewish Community Center.  There I heard the stories of young people who had been in Israel just a week ago.

One story stood out to me.  It was about being huddled together in a bomb shelter hearing rockets fly overhead and wondering who was going to be bombed.

I’ve heard those stories before.

Share This

Most Nashville area blog readers likely know “Busy Mom“.  Cookie and I are lucky enough to know her in real life too.  (They were high school classmates.) 

I’ve said of Busy Mom before that she is “Erma Bombeck with wi-fi.”  She is witty, charming, and funny–both online and in person.

If you are already familiar with Busy Mom, you know of the long battle with cancer that her mother has gone through over the last several years.  Busy Mom has written about it extensively both on her regular blog, and on another website, Genbetween, where she describes lessons learned from being a caregiver both to her children and to her parents.

This morning, Busy Grandma’s battle with cancer ended.  Please say a prayer for Elizabeth and her family.

Share This