Kissing Hands and Shaking Babies…

… or maybe it’s the other way around. In any case, that’s going to be the Mad Dog‘s agenda in the coming months, as he has decided to run for county commissioner in his suburban Knoxville district.

I suspect it may be an uphill struggle — Todd is a spot of blue in a deep red state, and even worse, perhaps, a Kentucky Wildcats fan in the home of the Tennessee Vols. On the other hand, on the practical level, party labels shouldn’t mean that much in local politics. My dad was mayor of Union, KY for twenty years, running as a non-partisan each time. He figured that Democrats and Republicans both wanted the trash picked up and the streets plowed, and that the fight to keep the city from being absorbed by sprawl wasn’t red or blue either. What mattered, he said, was meeting his neighbors and being willing to listen. And that served him well for two decades, until he got tired of the job (despite the glorious $50/month pay) and decided it was time for someone else to do it.

While my disgust for politics in general is no secret, I think that the local level on which Todd is running still offers some value, and I actually agree that the people of his district deserve a choice, in an area in which candidates often run unopposed. (Indeed, I tend to think that our current elective duopoly offers insufficient choice, but in this case, it’s a start.) I think if he’s elected, he’ll do a conscientious job to the best of his ability.

So good luck, Mad Dog, and a word of advice. As you make the rounds of neighborhood carnivals, church festivals, and the like, choose your winners carefully.