VOLuntarilyConservative

Last Friday, I stated on this very blog that, in an effort to stay out of the backroom politics that made the selection of the Knox County Commission so easily wrought with corruption, I would remain a candidate for the 9th District seat if the Selection Committee and ultimately Commissioners Paul Pinkston and Larry Clark endorsed my candidacy.

As of Tuesday afternoon, Pinkston and Clark endorsed the candidacy of Tim Greene, a South Knox florist who had made a total of zero appearances to answer to the already disenfranchised South Knox voters and has still to this moment refused to make public his letter of intent or resume to those same voters.

Therefore, I am withdrawing my name from the list of those asking for appointment to the Knox County Commission for the 9th District.

I do this not because of Tim Greene and the apparent impropriety that has earned him the endorsement of Pinkston and Clark (note: if you want to know more, follow the trail of flower petals and see which Knox County Commissioner it leads back to), but because of my own integrity in that I said publicly that I would not go against Pinkston and Clark. I am a man of my word - which may disqualify me from serving on the Knox County Commission, but I digress.

I thank all of those who have called, e-mailed, voted in straw polls, and left comments on VOLuntarilyConservative and other sites encouraging my candidacy. I did this more for the citizens of South Knox County as myself, as I have always declared that my interests lie elsewhere when it comes to seeking public office.

I thought that I could help out the deep-seeded corruption that is Knox County politics. (At this point, I must say that, after this little junket into local politics, that Knox County government is more along the corruption scale of 1930s Louisiana and makes the dealings in Washington, D.C., seem like the bastion of integrity by comparison.)

I publicly stated over the past few days that my first act as Commissioner would have been to propose a special election so that the people could popularly choose their elected representatives instead of the despots that felt it better to do such for them. As those in power would have most likely voted that down, my second task would have been to have taken a hatchet to the overfed, pork-laden Knox County budget in the effort of unloading the unnecessary and unreasonable tax burden from the shoulders of Knox County's residents.

It's a shame, but it is obvious to this observer that this corrupt system of government in Knox County has not improved through this appointment process that will result in the fathers, sons, and business associates of sitting Commissioners being appointed to serve. The names may change, but the people making the decisions have not.

I bid adieu to Knox County politics for now. I'm not sure there is a place for anyone with integrity within its current system of governance. The Tennessee Sunshine Law does not exist in Knox County (as reported in Wednesday's News Sentinel), so it cannot provide disinfectant to those who are brokering the deals.

I will not attend Wednesday morning's meeting. The newly appointed Commissioners having all been anointed by their friends and family in power, I see no reason to do so. (I suspect that Brian's Blog will have coverage. As an aside, I can't wait until Brian Hornback is done as Knox GOP Chairman so that he can stop toeing the party line and begin to start telling us what he really thinks...)

Again, thanks to my supporters. Another time, perhaps.

Labels: Knox County Politics