Chattanooga Mayoral hopeful Rob Healy has been waiting on the courts to decide whether he will be able to run for Mayor in the Spring ‘09 Chattanooga city election. The original issue was whether Mr. Healy met the durational residency qualifications under section 8.27 of the city charter. From the beginning this should not have even been an issue. It was black and white. Based on the Chattanooga City Charter, Rob Healy met the charter qualifications to be Mayor of Chattanooga.

What was the Hamilton County Election Commission thinking? What was city attorney Randy Nelson thinking? What was everyone but Chancellor Howell Peoples thinking? Apparently they weren’t. The entire situation smells of political hooey! Rob had a run-in with Mayor Littlefield back when Mr. Healy was the city Parks and Recreation director. My guess is “they” had it out for him from the beginning.

Here is the exact quote from Section 8.27:

No person shall be elected to the office of mayor unless he or she has been a resident of the city of Chattanooga for at least one year prior to his or her election and unless he or she shall be at least thirty (30) years of age.

Is there anything confusing about that? It doesn’t say that he or she must be a resident for one year prior to qualifying. It says he or she must be a resident one year prior to the election.

It amazes me at how elitism runs rampant in our wonderful city. Congratulations Rob on getting what you should have gotten on September 24. The Hamilton County Election Commissioners should all issue a formal apology to Mr. Healy and the residents of Hamilton County. If not, they should resign and cite “incapacity to fulfill job duties” as their reason. They took an oath of office and have failed to uphold that oath.

It should be noted that I’m not writing this to support Rob Healy’s bid for Mayor, or to personally attack the election commissioners or the Election Commission. Our form of government only works if the people we elect and trust uphold their end of the bargain in a fair and honest manner. Chancellor Peoples’ decision was a victory for every citizen in Hamilton County.

Playing off the recent election, Varsity Team Sports and Apparel has come up with a “BJ for Quarterback” t-shirt that is now on sale for as low as $11.50 each.  The back says, “Because we can’t afford two more games of failed Fulmer strategy.”  The same design is also available on long sleeve shirts, sweatshirts, hoodies, coffee mugs, bumper stickers, blankets, vinyl wall stickers (Fatheads) and more!

Show your support for BJ - or your lack of support for Coach Fulmer’s personel decisions - and get your “BJ for Quarterback” t-shirt now!

And as I said before, if you can’t catch it either, check back during the week to WTCI’s Tennessee Insider’s web page for previously recorded shows!

I also would like to thank Tennessee Insider producer, Angela Lee McClister, for inviting me on the show.  I always love discussing business and politics!

I’ll be on there today, so be sure to TiVo - or whatever you do - if you won’t be home tonight!  If you do miss the show, you can watch it at WTCI’s On-Demand website where they make previously aired shows available.

Possible topics for tonight’s show include changes in the federal bailout, our state budget, and the local economy.

After you watch it, let me know how we did!

Research In Motion finally got with the program and have come out with a new touch screen Blackberry for Verizon - the Blackberry Storm. I can’t figure out when the release date is, but it’s soon!

So I was working on my Accounting homework tonight, when Autumn called me completely offended by the Facebook Status of an African American girl that went to school with us at Ooltewah. More than offended, she really couldn’t believe the racially motivated comments made by Tiffany Mason. I’ve posted screen shots from Facebook below. Democrats and Republicans, whites, blacks, asians, latin americans - I’d love to hear all your comments below!

On one hand, it’s frustrating, offensive, etc, etc, etc. On the other hand, I just have to laugh at the ignorance shown by these displays of complete racism. I voted for John McCain, but it was for fundamental difference in opinions - not race.

UPDATE: I tried to see what her status was this evening, and low and behold she’s removed me and Autumn as one of her friends.  Darn.

Unfortunately, many ballots will be cast today with this thought process behind the decision.