Hendersonville Standard
HENDERSONVILLE WEATHER

Politics as usual? We hope not




Our View:

Our View:

Surely we weren’t the only ones to emit a sigh of relief on May 2.

It was, after all a bitter, nasty political season leading up to the May 1 county primary. More so than usual, in our opinion.

First, there were the four Republican candidates who told us they received either threatening emails, texts or a hand-delivered letter encouraging them not to run. All four said they were told that embarrassing information would be released about them if they stayed in their races for either county commission or countywide office. One chose not to run, another was taken off the ballot after being challenged by local Republican party leadership, and two stayed in their races.

A cornerstone of our democracy is an election process that is free and fair. Just as people should be able to vote for whom they choose without fear or intimidation, people should not be intimidated into not running for office. That type of behavior takes place in some other countries but should never be allowed to happen here.

When asked specifically about an email thread to one candidate and the hand-delivered letter to another, Sumner County District Attorney General Ray Whitley said he didn’t think either instance rose to the level of a crime.    

We also heard about robo-calls being made disparaging one candidate and not identifying who was behind the calls – a clear violation of election law.

And then there were the four or so mailers sent by the newly formed political action committee (PAC) Sumner County Government of the People. Funded by local developers, the group used the name Sumner GOP on its mailers – purposely misleading voters in our opinion. On some of the mailers, the name of who endorsed the fliers was so faint no one knew who was sending them.

Again, Whitley’s office was called to look into the matter – this time for possible election law violations, a Class C misdemeanor.

When your district attorney general is as busy during election season as candidates and reporters, it’s a sure sign things have gotten out of hand.  

While we are all taking a breather following Tuesday’s election, let’s not forget we have two more to go this year – a state primary and county general election in August and municipal and state general election races in November.

We implore candidates running in those elections to have more respect for the voters they hope to serve.

Because if you can’t stand up for transparency, honesty and respect as a candidate, how can we expect you to do that as an elected official?

Our editorial board is comprised of Publisher Dave Gould, Editor Sherry Mitchell and Reporters Tena Lee and Josh Cross.

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