My First Campaign Promise

Well it had to happen.

Eventually every candidate does it and so here I am to make my first promise to my constituency.

I, John Cullin Spellings, on this the 20th day of May in the Year of Our Lord 2008, do hereby solemnly vow to never vote to allow the use of Red-light Cameras in Knox County.

Whew, there I did it it's done. I've been fretting over what would be my first promise and I fell this is one that I can certainly keep. I despise those cameras, I don't understand how they can #1 be legal, and #2 be accepted by any freedom loving group of people. I won't go into my rant about them here, you can read my many rants on the Wigshop blog if you like though.

This came about from Sunday while listening to George Corda's (sp?) show on 100.3 FM and the entire show was about these cameras. I did call in and speak my peace, or at least ask a few questions of one of the city judges who upholds the cameras lawfulness, such as it is.

It was a typical enough discussion until he mentioned that the county had not YET approved the use of the cameras. Wow, so this could happen to us, well that's what I thought at least. It just takes a few greedy commissioners to decide that what's good for goose is good for the gander.

So I am here to say that if elected I will fight tooth and nail against these things on the basis of their fundamental disrespect for so many of the traditions of law enforcement and because of the clearly questionable civil rights issues they arise.

So there you go, the first and long anticipated campaign promise, kind of anti-climactic isn't it.

A New Day in the District

As I sit here at one of my favorite haunts, Downtown Grill and Brewery, I think about how grateful I am to live in such a great, all-be-it small, community in downtown Knoxville. It's true that it's not huge, it's not the most cosmopolitan, and there are a number of problems we face in continuing the successes we have made in downtown, but there is no doubt that this area is heading in a great direction.

From Mechanicsville to Chilhowee Park, from the Fort to Gay St. there seems to be a steady progression of revitalization. Excitement about downtown and the central-city district is evident. We have a City Mayor who is committed to seeing success in District 1A, and the results are evident.

We all know the great things that are happening, but there have been problems as well, specifically with our county government. If you're reading this then you probably have been paying attention to the series of continual failures that is our County Commission. Not only have the Commissioners (many of them at least) failed to uphold the law (term limits), but they then had the gall to put in friends, relatives, and people who would owe them if they were put in place.

Listen, I'm not the smartest person in the world, I'm not the most knowledgeable about how to run a government, I don't have lots of money, and I'm not going to make a bunch of promises. What I will do is commit to promoting District 1A for what it is, a dynamic, exciting, and integral part of what makes Knoxville unique. I mean hey, we've got the Sunsphere.

Please, give me your consideration as we head to the polls this August. I'm fighting an uphill battle, but I think it's a battle worth fighting.

Write in Spellings, Write Out Nepotism