Monday, July 17, 2006

MSM Daily Paper Endorsement Grades

How well did the MSM (Main Stream Media) Daily Paper accomplish their job of County Commission endorsement?

1st District Seat A - Pass - Nick Della Volpe
1st District Seat B - Failed - Ann Dingus deserves the vote of the people.
2nd District Seat A - Pass - David Collins
2nd District Seat B - Failed - No Republican on the ballot, Deborah Porter was an excellent write-in Republican
3rd District Seat A - Pass - Tony Norman
3rd District Seat B - Pass - Ivan Harmon
4th District Seat A - John Schmid -
4th District Seat B - Failed - Phil Guthe is worthy of the vote of the people.
5th District Seat A - Pass - Michael Hammond
5th District Seat B - Should have endorsed Craig Leuthold - who has no opposition.
5th District Seat C - Failed - John Griess has the experience and deserves the vote of the people.
6th District Seat A - Pass - Chuck James
6th District Seat B - Failed - Greg Lumpy Lambert deserves the vote of the people.
7th District Seat A - Pass - R. Larry Smith
7th District Seat B - Failed - Scott Moore deserved the endorsement - who has opposition
8th District Seat A - Pass - Phil Ballard
8th District Seat B - Pass - John R. Mills
9th District Seat A - Pass - Larry Clark
9th District Seat B - Failed - Paul Pinkston deserves the vote of the people.

In 11 races they were correct and received a passing grade.
In 6 races the were wrong and received a failing grade.
In 2 races they were not graded, due to lack of an endorsement.

6th District School Board - H. Lee Martin received the endorsement in this no-partisian race.





2 comments:

Thomas A Deakins said...

Brian,

I did not expect the endorsement of our paper. I find it rather interesting they think a candidate that sends his children to CAK and Webb should be on the public school board. You were a school board member and I would like your thoughts on this as well.

Thomas Deakins

Brian Hornback said...

School Board races are not Democrat or Republican, I disagree with the legislature of 1992 on this, make the Democrats run as Democrats.

I reported the endorsement of Lee Martin.

I was on the School Board for four years 2000-2004. The current problem with make-up of the school board is a lack of someone with business experience.

First District - Government employee (City of Knoxville - Parks and Rec.)

Second District - former Government employee (Arizona legislature)

Third District - Government employee (Property Assessor's office)

Fourth District - Education (UTK)

Fifth District - Health Services

Sixth District - Government employee (Parks and Rec)

Seventh District - Currently Government employee (Democrat Mike Padgett's office) The new Representative is a retired administrator of the Knox County School system.

Eighth District - Retired Knox County School Principal.

Ninth District - Marketing and Grant writer for a Non - Profit.

While several of these individuals are good people and good board members, it is not their fault that as a body they lack someone with business experience.

One of the previous school boards (city or county)had a member that utilized private education for their children. I believe it was board member Overholt (I believe that he also served as Chairman)

I feel that the greatest need the school board has today and it will not be solved in one election is to have someone with business experience. The KCS budget is a $366 million dollar budget (2/3 of the county budget)

The system should begin to look at successful businesses for strategies to operate.

Thanks for reading.