Your opinion on a winner depends on your perspective at local debates

 I had a great time at the Oconee County GOP candidates forum last week at the Watkinsville Community Center. Just so every knows, I will repeat this for 10,000th time, I vote in the Republican primary in Oconee County depsite my McGovern Democratic party roots and upbringing, to have as much impact on the local representation and government.

In a race like Regina Quick versus Doug McKillip in the GOP primary for State House 117th in 2012, it can make a difference when the vote total is 64 votes. In primaries or run offs when second and third can be separated by an equally small margin, the Democratic to Republican crossover vote can make a huge difference as well. Beyond that it might seem like a kiss of death for certain longtime Democratic supporters such as myself to offer up endorsements or to put a sign in their yard.

I was not successful supporting the Board of Education candidacies of Chuck Toney or Ashley Hood, or the Chairman of the Board of Commissioners in Chuck Horton, but feel like I have made lifetime friends despite their not winning in that trio at least.   Ultimately it does not make that grand a difference whether you win or lose, but how you played the game. I could have been more gracious in defeat and competition with Chuck Williams or Charles Ivie in 2011, but that does not mean I think they are bad people. I hope the hostilities are ceased on their part as well. Politics is a petty, hateful, superficial debate that has little or no place in regards to logic, deductive reasoning, or substance.

I have high regard for anyone who runs for office. I do not have high regard for buffoons who call up women I used to date to try to get dirt on me. I appreciate the efforts of anyone who runs for office. I think that first or second time candidates like John Larkin and Maria Caudill are to be commended for putting their necks out there to be scrutinized, gossiped about, judged however fairly or unfairly, and generally subjected to ridicule and harassment by the general public and busy bodies at large. That said, it this civic involvement and popularity contest we call a Democratic Republic, and this imperfect procedure leads to the Eric Ericksons of the world to slander me or anyone else who does not conform to his narrow view of the world. When you want one faction or viewpoint to dominate the local political flow in your direction, without regard of the other folks point of view, you risk greater retaliation for your believes if you are outside the mainstream point of view. I tend to be subversive in my votes, but I do think incumbents John Daniell and Margaret Hale provide a vital counterbalance to the way Oconee County Board of Commissioners Chairman G. Melvin Davis has run the county for the last dozen years. 

For that reason alone I think they deserve re-election, although I would vote John Larkin or Maria Caudill under almost any other circumstance or situation. I do not think Maria or John are in the pocket of Chairman Davis or anyone else. It is not necessarily about who you think is smartest or cutest or nicest or even friendliest, it is about who you think will be best for the county at this point of time. Personalities are merely the most ephemeral evidence of how a person is going to govern. Someone who attends all the BOC meetings called me to complain that she thought her candidate "cleaned the clock" of the other candidate at this debate, and I tried to explain how this person who thought that could not be objective in this instance, for any number of reasons. Needless to say, this person was not too receptive to my analysis and only gave a few other people's assessment of the situation as evidence of why I am wrong. If you play tennis, yes, John Larkin is your ace candidate for expanded recreational facilities and more courts in the county. If you like tourism, yes, Maria Caudill has the expertise necessary to expand and promote our county's considerable profile. Both of them are strongly encouraged to expand their voter base. Maybe they will win, maybe Maria will make a run off against Bubber or Margaret, but right now I do not think this will happen. I strongly encourage them both to remain involved in public affairs and politics in Oconee County and perhaps run again in 2016.