OldSouth really has no idea where to invest his vote.
After twenty years or so of Democrat ownership, TN 8 is finally being abandoned by John Tanner, who decided to get out while he could.
So, we have three Republicans seeking the seat, in alphabetical order.
Stephen Fincher
George Flinn
Ron Kirkland
Fincher runs his large family-owned farm operation in Frog Jump, Tennessee. Really, no joke, there is a Frog Jump, Tennessee, although OS wonders why one would admit to it, much less boast of it. However, running a successful farming business is no small feat. It has very little to do with those pastoral distance shots with the music of Copland hovering in the background. He did announce his run before Tanner bowed out, and may have helped the blessed event occur. He travels with his family gospel-singing group in his spare time. The Southern Gospel Music culture is a world unto itself in many ways. OS knows more about it than he cares to admit, and don't ask him how he knows...
Flinn is a physician and businessman, with an engineering degree as well. He is a radiologist, and owns a series of radiology facilities, as well as a firm that owns some forty radio stations, Flinn Broadcasting. The man definitely knows how to organize things and make money, which OS considers a virtue.
There is an oddity here, though. Under Tennessee law, one does not need to live in a particular Congressional district in order to run for the seat. Given the imaginative manner in which the usually-Democrat-controlled state legislature cheerily gerrymanders districts to protect Democrat Members of Congress, this is not truly surprising, even though it is creepy. Flinn has taken advantage of that fact, and lives in Memphis (its own Congressional district, forever Democrat) while running for office in District 8, which stretches almost to Nashville. All very odd, but one has to admire his chutzpah, perhaps.
Ron Kirkland is a physician and businessman as well, practicing and managing a large medical practice in Jackson, TN, that provides most of the medical services for most of rural West Tennessee. He undoubtedly has prospered as well, again a virtue, assuming the earnings are acquired virtuously. One of the downsides of private-enterprise medicine is the same as public-sector medicine: large practices like this can tend to be anti-competitive, making life hell on any provider who may create competition. OS was recently regaled with just such a story, emanating from (you guessed it), Jackson, Tennessee. It may or may not have been Kirkland's outfit that screwed that provider, but it is illustrative of the problem.
The counties these firms serve begin to resemble plantations. OS lives in a county that was long dominated by such a practice, and the results were tragic in many cases. Fifth-rate medical care, fortunes built, patients regularly injured. OS is a capitalist, and thinks that rigged markets are evil.
All three candidates have formed the requisite circular firing squad, each accusing the other of secretly sleeping with Nancy Pelosi, worshipping Obama, and enthusiastically promoting abortion, while simultaneously assuring the voter 'I'm more conservative than THOSE GUYS!!'
OS is, well, not impressed.
Given the fact that each campaign probably has some snot-nosed kid working in the office whose job it is to scour for bloggers who write about the upcoming primary, OS hereby issues the invitation for someone from each camp to state, in fifty cogent words or less, why his guy merits a vote. Only rule is, no one can say anything remotely nasty or snide about the opponents.
Play nice, boys.
OS is curious to see if any of these gents is up to the linguistic task...
No comments:
Post a Comment