I read with great interest Lou Miller’s angry diatribe concerning my chairmanship and Terry Lee’s appearance at a County Commission forum last week. I was disappointed to see Ms. Miller engage in a Swift Boat Veteran for Truth campaign against the party she claims to hold near to her heart.
Her statements in the Chattanoogan.com were based on a Republican strategy designed to take the voter’s minds off the issues.
In light of her comments, I have 10 questions for Ms. Miller. I would like to see her address each one during the campaign, answering the issue-oriented ones by explaining her position to the voters of District 6. To be fair, I hope that John Brooks, her opponent, is able to answer these questions, concentrating on those dealing with the issues concerning the voters of our community.
Ms. Miller:
1. Where do you stand on education, what is your plan to put more dollars in the classroom where the money is needed? The voters deserve an answer, the voters deserve a plan.
2. What are you plans to increase employment opportunities in our community, making sure employers have a well educated employee pool from which to hire qualified and educated workers. The voters deserve an answer, the voters deserve a plan.
3. What have you done to create health care opportunities in our community, what have you done to preserve the largest public health care institution in our county? The voters deserve an answer, the voters deserve a plan.
4. What have you done, and what is your plan, to help the elderly in our community with an exemption on paying property taxes. The voters deserve an answer, the voters deserve a plan.
5. What is your plan for the future of Hamilton County, for the next four years if you earn the privilege of serving the community? The voters deserve an answer, the voters deserve a plan.
6. What do you stand for, and why? The voters deserve an answer, the voters deserve a plan.
7. Why did you vote for a candidate for Sessions Court with no litigation experience, and no experience handling cases in Sessions Court? Why did you vote for a man whose only qualification is that he served as Republican Party chair? The voters deserve an answer, the voters deserve an explanation.
8. Why are you engaging in personal attacks over engaging the public and Mr. Brooks in a debate on the issues? The voters deserve an answer, the voters deserve an explanation.
9. Why are you criticizing Terry Lee for being at an event you did not attend? The voters deserve an answer.
10. Finally, are you really a Democrat? The Democratic Party deserves an answer.
I have a bonus question for you, one that I will answer:
How many mortgage companies refinance homes that have unpaid taxes? Ms. Miller, the answer is none. If you want to see the closing documents on my family’s refinance, and you want to know how these taxes are paid, I will be glad to show you the documents, documents showing I have been a property taxpayer in this community for over 16 years. You and Red Burrows have undertaken a Swift Boat tactic, one that is designed to fool the voters. Next time, get the facts, facts that I and my mortgage holder have, and that you and Red Burrows do not. Ms. Miller, I am prepared to engage you and Red Burrows face to face on this issue, an issue where I have the facts and you do not.
Ms. Miller, you have an opportunity to engage the public on issues of education, job growth, economic development and health care for our future. It appears, however, that you are just another politician trying to fool your party and your community. Your record shows you are just as out of touch with the issues as Curtis Adams, Fred Skillern and Bill Hullander. Based on your record over the past four years, you appear to be a wolf in sheep’s clothes — a Republican posing as a Democrat.
The primary is designed to nominate a Democrat to serve in District 6, you seem to have forgotten that is how the primary system works. During the primary it the Democratic Party’s obligation to nominate qualified Democrats for office.
From this point on, I will let the Democrats decide if you are fit to be the party’s nominee — if they elect you as our nominee I will honor and respect the party, its plan, and its platform. I only hope that you will.
Stuart James
Chairman, Hamilton County Democratic Party
sfjgcj@comcast.net
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Mr. James, you seem to have lost your focus. You are supposed to be the chairman of the Democratic Party and not a candidate for District 6.
You began this totally improper political attack on me and my family. The voters know where I and my husband and former County Commissioner Ben Miller stood and continue to stand on all of the issues that you raise. Ben continued to win re-election year after year, and I was successful in my very first election bid.
Nothing has changed in the Miller family’s support for working people and the financial security for senior citizens.
We must have been doing something right that the voters strongly approve of with their continued support. My dialogue with you is closed. The voters of the Sixth District will decide all issues.
County Commissioner Lou Miller
Ferger Place
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Every time I read another Stuart James letter it seems they are becoming more and more bizarre. For some reason he thinks that most people believe these fantasies he tries to perpetuate. Mr. James started this whole thing with Lou Miller by saying that he couldn't officially endorse a candidate in her race but if he could it would be his buddy John Brooks.
No one over the age of two years falls for this stuff. Every time James is nailed about some dumb thing he has done he accuses that person of a "Swift Boat Campaign" against him. Is he obsessed with boats or something?
Lou Miller's complaints about an organized campaign by the local limousine liberals like James to defeat her are dead on and every one knows it. Furthermore, the only thing the Republicans are doing as a strategy is encouraging James to spout off as much as possible which will further alienate the voters he is after. If he is what the Hamilton County Democrats have become it is no wonder that prominent members of his party are running away screaming to the Republicans.
This is not about Democrats and Republicans. It is about increasing taxes or not increasing taxes pure and simple. James portrays the anti-tax commisioners as being out-of touch with voters and yet every poll shows that the public has had it with property tax increases. They can use whatever code word they want but it is still increasing taxes. The evidence of James duplicity is not only in his "I wish I could support John Brooks" statement. It is also the fact that everyone James doesn't like just happens to be against a tax increase. What a coincidence! More evidence is the fact that there is no serious opposition to Larry Henry who voted for a tax increase last time around. What a coincidence! Even more evidence is the fact that he is attacking Mr. Henry's opponent Red Burrows which in effect helps Henry. What a coincidence! Instead of coindidence, it just could be another of James' clumsy attempts at attack politics. It is no wonder since he is the power structure point man and they don't care if you are a Republican or Democrat just so you vote how you are told.
On the other hand, Lou Miller is a traditional, blue collar, Democrat which someone like James wouldn't recognize if they bit him. Maybe James should look in the mirror and answer his own question about whether or not he is a Democrat. He sure isn't like the ones I remember when I was being raised.
Since Mr. James is so fond of interrogating other people, maybe he can answer a few questions I have for him.
1. How do you get your orders from the power structure and who gives them to you?
2. If elected, how much are candidates you are supporting going to raise taxes and when?
3. Why don't you just tell the truth and say that your guys are for a tax increase and let's make this election a referendum on whether of not the public is in favor of one?
On second thought, don't bother because we already know your real answers to these questions.
Tim Price
jat-55@msn.com
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This is a reply to Tim Price's reply to Stuart James's opinion:
Tim, your one-track mind is, as usual, incorrect.
This isn't about property taxes. This is about whether my current county commissioner is a Democrat or not. I think she is a DINO (Democrat in name only).
Where does she stand on the important issues of District 6 that a real Democrat would have already addressed on the commission: economic development and job recruitment, neighborhood services for each constituent, public education, and the full range of issues that confront the urban municipal constituents in the 21st century (such as driver's education and cell phones - oh that's right, she wouldn't know anything about driver's education or technology).
These are the issues a traditional, blue collar Democrat should be addressing. She hasn't addressed one single Democratic issue since being on the County Commission.
So, Tim, as usual, you are incorrect. This is a primary election, and it is about being a Democrat.
David Crane
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In my opinion, Stuart James' 10 questions for County Commissioner Lou
Miller is nothing more than "mental gymnastics" consisting of manipulative rhetoric, public interest pretending plus a bad case of ADHD (Attention deficit hyperactive disorder).
In my opinion, Stuart James could not even pass the "Lemon Law" (something inferior).
In my opinion, Ms. Lou Miller does not owe you any answers to your
ambiguous and hypocritical and obnoxious 10 questions and you owe her an apology for your arrogance.
The tax-eaters are destroying the tax-earners.
It appears to me that your 10 questions to Ms. Lou Miller proves to me that your amount of knowledge on the subject matter is so minute that it would not even fill a thimble. My hero, Will Rogers, once said "The more you observe politics the more you've got to admit that each party is worse than the other."
Commissioner Lou Miller, candidate for re-election, has a sense of duty and will focus on positive accomplishments. She is an inspiration to her neighborhood and Hamilton County as a whole.
Election time is near so please vote for the best candidate for utmost
quality of county government.
Vote for District 1, Fred Skillern, District 2, Joe Dumas, District 3, Jim
Coppinger, District 4, Warren Mackey, District 5, Greg Beck, District 6, Ms. Lou Miller, District 7, Red Burrows, District 8, Curtis Adams, District 9, Bill Hullander and for County Mayor, Brian Johnson.
They have a vision for the future.
W.L. Schultz
So. Moore Rd.
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I long for the days long ago gone when "politicians" as we call them,
actually interacted with their constituents and took those issues forward in our government on all levels - from local representatives all the way up the political food chain.
We now only have the choice to vote for a candidate whose beliefs and values may be similar to our own and, even then, have no promise that those beliefs and values will "stick" once the person is elected. One only has to look beyond his own nose to see that our government no longer works as the people are not represented, but the politician's personal agenda is his/her priority.
I have seen one exception in recent years but will not mention that
politician's name as it would seem an endorsement and my actual point would become muddled. Going about the business of "running things" while in office without actually speaking with and hearing the people represented goes against everything America has ever stood for, yet this is how our government works. Sad, very sad.
Lynn Curtis
lynncurtis@bellsouth.net