I would like to be the first to offer congratulations to newly elected
Dade County, Ga., County Executive Ben Brandon. Mr. Brandon won
yesterday's runoff in a landslide, with 66 percent of the vote to Allan
Bradford's 34 percent.
What makes this achievement especially remarkable is that Ben Brandon was running as a Libertarian and defeated not one, but two, major party opponents. (The Democrat was eliminated after finishing third in the November 2 general election.) This is believed to be the first time in Georgia history that a third party candidate has emerged victorious over
Republican and Democratic candidates in a partisan race.
Mr. Brandon, who is known as "the Taxpayer's Best Friend," has vowed to
balance the Dade County budget by managing more professionally and
spending more wisely, not on the backs of his neighbors by increasing
taxes. In particular, Ben supports tax relief for senior citizens. I
hope he is able to work with the new Dade County Commission and achieve
these noble and worthwhile goals.
And commendably (though ironically since he just won in a partisan
election) Ben Brandon supports changing all Dade County elections to a non-partisan system where voters could choose the best person for the
job without regard to party affiliation. Hamilton County would do well to adopt non-partisan elections also; perhaps with our neighbors to the southwest as an example, this idea may take root.
With the election of Democrat Lou Miller to fill the rest of her late
husband's term on the Hamilton County Commission, with her son Ben
nearly upending incumbent Joe Conner for a School Board seat, with
Republican Rhonda Thurman winning her race to become the taxpayers'
watchdog on that body, and now with Libertarian Ben Brandon taking over
the reins as Dade County's first elected executive, those of us in the
greater Chattanooga area who are tired of "tax and spend" politics as
usual have reason to take heart. When concern for the interests of
taxpayers knows no party boundaries, all the hard-working (and retired),
taxpaying citizens are winners.
Joe Dumas
joedumas@bellsouth.net