Mon
Feb 23 2009
11:12 am
Vines on the Knox Co. Election Commission
By: R. Neal

Georgiana Vines reports on changes at the Knox County Election Commission and how it might affect Greg Mackay's tenure as adminisrator. You won't believe one of the names being discussed as a possible replacement.

Topics:
Ragsdale2010's picture

Desperate people do desperate things for a living

Submitted by Ragsdale2010 (not verified) on Mon, 2009/02/23 - 11:56am.

What you are seeing are comprehensive pleas for one of them thar gubmint jobs with a nice salary courtesy of everybody's property tax dollars and some nice benefits, maybe even a car and a gas card. Unfortunately, we can't all work for local government and the sooner they start realizing the local economy is in the toilet and has been for a number of years, the sooner we can try to get the for profit business community in this town back on track and maybe someday Knoxville will take back its rightful place as the business and economic center of East Tennessee, a title it has relinquished under very piss poor local leadership, primarily at the county level. We have incapable people serving in roles they are not competent to handle and they have a very difficult time telling the truth, particularly regarding whether or not bonds have been purhcased by the county or whether they have not been.

Bbeanster's picture

She left out a name: Mike

Submitted by Bbeanster on Mon, 2009/02/23 - 12:02pm.

She left out a name:

Mike Lowe -- nother dedicated public servant who sacrificed his prospects in the private sector in order to hold public office. 'Course he's probably busy lawyering u right about now....

Rigsby Werner's picture

Wonder what happened to Big Mike's development business?

Submitted by Rigsby Werner (not verified) on Mon, 2009/02/23 - 12:42pm.

I thought the violins were playing and he was parking a career in public service to go out there and develop with the best of them. He'd seen how it was done and was going on to do bigger and better things.

My, my, my, how things are changing and when the politically well connected starting looking for a new courthouse gig, you have a hard time telling whether or not we are in a recession or these bums are really running out of money and running out of things to do.

knoxrebel's picture

Mackay

Submitted by knoxrebel on Mon, 2009/02/23 - 2:22pm.

Betty - what's the odds on Mackay keeping his job? He hasn't been a bad administrator, even though he and I have butted heads once or twice. He appears to go out of his way to be as unbiased or unprejudiced as possible. That's a hard row to hoe as a political appointee.

Bbeanster's picture

I've noticed a surprising

Submitted by Bbeanster on Mon, 2009/02/23 - 2:34pm.

I've noticed a surprising amount of sentiment in some GOP circles for GMac to be retained. That's probably because he's bent over backward to be even-handed. So much so that he's honked a lot of Democrats off -- particularly when he hired several Republicans (Irene McCrary, for example) as election judges (I think that's what it was).
The so-called red-meat Republicans (Campfield, Niceley, and others of that ilk) won't take that lying down, though, so I don't know what the future holds for Greg. But for now, he looks OK.

*Also, I'd say a lot of folks remember the terrible election-night screw-ups of the recent past and don't want them repeated. Things have run pretty smoothly lately.

Rachel's picture

Greg has done a great job -

Submitted by Rachel on Mon, 2009/02/23 - 2:52pm.

Greg has done a great job - especially if you remember what the office was like before he took it over. If Republicans want to signal that they're interested in competence and even-handedness, they'll keep Greg.

If they want to signal it's all about politics as usual, they'll give the job to one of their less qualified cronies.

Ragsdale2010's picture

McKay has done a good job, the Election Commission itself is

Submitted by Ragsdale2010 (not verified) on Mon, 2009/02/23 - 6:20pm.

the problem. Way too many lawyers on the panel and had they done their job and refused to accept the petitions of those individuals which were term limited out, two years of senseless expensive litigation would have been lifted from the taxpayers pocketbooks and Black Tuesday never would have occurred. Term limits starts with the election commission making a threshhold determination of who is eligible to serve in elected office based on the laws of the community and our commission stuck its head in the sand and did nothing. Of course, when your firm's largest client is up for re-election and it's your job to tell him he can't run again, it makes exactly for the drama which was played our here at taxpayer expense. Personally, I'd keep McKay and toss the entire election commission (term limit them) and move on to something more productive.

knoxrebel's picture

Have to differ with you on this one

Submitted by knoxrebel on Mon, 2009/02/23 - 7:09pm.

The lawyer point is well taken. However, I was involved in a lawsuit last fall against the Election Commission and Greg where the Court found, based on a recent Tennessee Supreme Court case, that the Election Commissioners and Administrators were extremely limited in what they can do with respect to deciding who or what goes on a ballot. For instance, they cannot "investigate" residency or other qualification issues to determine whether someone is qualified to be a candidate. Nor can they make "legal determinations" about whether someone is or is not qualified. The simplest definition is that all they can do is count and make sure paperwork is properly filled out. Their duties are expressly "ministerial" and they cannot use any discretion. Weird, but according to Chancellors Fansler and Weaver, that's the law. Because Greg had actually "investigated" a residency issue by discussing it with Democrats, he violated the statute which declares his duties and the Judge ordered the candidate's name placed on the ballot.

rikki's picture

Yes, the Black Wednesday

Submitted by rikki on Mon, 2009/02/23 - 9:09pm.

Yes, the Black Wednesday fiasco was a product of the Appellate and Chancery courts and of an incorrect and enduring interpretation of the Charter by state attorneys, perpetuated by county law directors. The Election Commission was a helpless pawn.

Of course, the term-limited commissioners who ran bear primary blame, and a few had strong enough moral sense not to run, even when the prevailing opinion was that they were eligible.

bizgrrl's picture

If Republicans want to

Submitted by bizgrrl on Mon, 2009/02/23 - 7:10pm.

If Republicans want to signal that they're interested in competence and even-handedness, they'll keep Greg.

Exactly.

knoxrebel's picture

Keeping Greg

Submitted by knoxrebel on Mon, 2009/02/23 - 9:32pm.

There's a little bit of time left before we'll know Greg's fate. Wonder if a bipartisan grassroots movement could work to push for Greg's re-appointment? He has supporters across the political spectrum because he's done a decent job. Anyone have any ideas about taking something like this on? I'd sign an ad for print or sign a petition and personally hand it to Burchett et al. I'd pay for it. I'm sure alot of folks would. This is important. If a more partisan-minded and less capable person is appointed to this position, it could undo everything Greg has accomplished and we're back where we were in the 90's, and from an election administering standpoint, that's not a good place to be.

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