Forget playing the Kevin Bacon version of 6 Degrees of Separation.

If you are interested in changing the political landscape and have factual information about who is related to whom or who works for whom, there might be an interesting way for a group of motivated volunteers to gather a lot of disparate information. Group blogging the results of this research would be largely beneficial to the community. If you're interested in helping, drop me a line. A group is forming.

In the meantime, check out Wikipedia, Knox County TN and scroll to Law and Government.

UPDATED: Well, since someone deleted the "Law and Government" section on Wikipedia's Knox County TN page, here it is re-posted.

Law and government
In 1994, Knox County voters overwhelmingly passed term limits on Knox County officeholders, including County Commission, Sheriff, Register of Deeds, the County Clerk, and and the County Trustee’s office.

For thirteen years, these officeholders ignored term limits, filed lawsuits, and fought to preserve a system of cronyism. On January 12, 2007, the Tennessee Supreme Court finally ruled the term limited officeholders had to go. (source: Knoxville News Sentinel “A Dozen Done,” January 13, 2007)

On January 31, 2007, the County Commission voted to appoint 12 replacements for these officeholders, but not in what most observers in Knoxville considered a forthright, public process. (source: Knoxville News Sentinel “Backroom Deals,” January 31, 2007)

Some of the more egregious activities that occurred during the January 31 commission meeting include:

1. Outgoing commissioner Diane Jordan nominated her son, Josh, who mows lawns, to replace her, and even voted for him.
2. Commissioner Mark Cawood succeeded in getting other commissioners to vote for his wife to replace him.
3. Commissioner Billy Tindell was immediately appointed to the position of County Clerk.
4. Commissioner Craig Leuthold's father, Frank, was appointed to represent the same district.
5. Commission chairman scott "Scoobie" Moore nominated and successfully pushed through his campaign treasurer for a seat that was not even in his district.
6. Outgoing sheriff Tim Hutchison nominated his chief deputy, J. J. Jones, to replace him who then hired Hutchison back as his chief deputy.
7. When the commissioners were deadlocked, they recessed out of view of voters in violation of the Tennessee Open Meetings Law, where they proceeded to strong-arm commissioners to change their votes.
8. The commissioners swore in one of the newly appointed commissioners, but not the other six newly appointed commissioners, to break a deadlock vote.
9. Commissioner Greg "Lumpy" Lambert asked 2nd District nominee Jonathan Wimmer to vote for 4th District nominee Lee Tramel in exchange for a seat on commission. (source: Knoxville News Sentinel “Wimmer Says He Refused to Trade His Vote for Appointment,” February 2, 2007)

The process was described as “a circus where at any time, Boss Hogg of the Dukes of Hazzard was expected to enter the room.”