With 2008 being a presidential election year, even the folks who pay little attention to politics can’t help but notice the ad nausea media discussion of the candidates’ every move. For most folks, it’s a cause of much consternation and eye rolling. But for political geeks, presidential elections are the Super Bowl.

For voters in Putnam County, there is more at stake than just a presidential election. We also are going to elect our next Property Assessor. Rhonda Chaffin, Jason Scott and Angie Vaughn all are vying for one of the plum offices in county government.

But guess what? Only those who vote in the Democrat primary on February 5 will have any voice in the matter. That’s because all three candidates for Property Assessor are running as Democrats and the matter will be settled in their primary. So if you wish to support anyone for president other than Hillary Clinton, Barack Obama or some second-tier Democrat who has no chance of winning, you don’t get to vote in the Property Assessor race.

Seems unfair, doesn’t it?

When we think of the differences between Republicans and Democrats, we normally think about major issues like abortion, immigration, national defense, health care and such. We don’t see local issues like bond ratings, property valuations and sewer systems as partisan matters, nor should we. Why then, are candidates for local office forced to play party politics in order to have a viable candidacy? Why can’t they just run as themselves? Whatever happened to “vote for the person, not the party?”

Chances are that many folks know the candidates for local office first-hand. If not, they probably know someone else who knows them. When it comes to local races, folks often vote for the person they know and like the best rather than for the person who belongs to a particular party.

So why should candidates for county office declare a party at all? Tennessee Code Annotated 2-13-208 allows municipal races to be non-partisan. Why not county races as well?

When registering to vote in Tennessee, a person does not register as a member of any political party. Only when voting in primary elections must a person choose one party or another. In 2000 and again in 2004, Putnam Countians split their vote, choosing a Republican president and a Democrat congressman. That tells me that we’re a bit more independent than some would have us believe.

Conventional wisdom in Putnam County is that the only way a person can get elected to countywide office is if he or she runs as a Democrat. That’s fine if a person really is a Democrat, but I suspect that a good many Republican candidates run as Democrats just so they can get some attention in the primary and a good many Republicans and Independents vote in the Democrat primary just so they can vote in the local races. There seems to be no good reason for it other than the fact that it’s always been that way. So why don’t we all just stop pretending and scrap the party labels in these local races?

State law should be changed to allow for non-partisan elections in all city and county races. Until then, maybe more candidates for county office will choose to run as Independents and let’s leave the partisan bickering at the state and federal level.

Jonathan Williams
Cookeville, Tennessee