VOTER GUIDESee a list of candidates, proposed amendments and sample ballots at timesfreepress.com/voterguide2014.Tennessee Amendments 101
We're down to the wire in the mid-term elections, and by most accounts early voting in Tennessee and Georgia was down this year compared to 2010 midterms.
Please vote in Tuesday's general election! The Chattanooga Times recommends:
* U.S. Senator, Tennessee -- Gordon Ball: This Knoxville attorney offers a progressive alternative to tired Sen. Lamar Alexander's recent pandering to the conservative right. Alexander, now seeking his third six-year term, also has let Tennessee down on an important issue in our own back yards by seeking to block Tennessee Walking Horse abuse reform. The bill has the bipartisan support of more than 360 House and Senate co-sponsors, but not Alexander's. It's time for new leadership.
* U.S. Senator, Georgia -- Michelle Nunn: The daughter of former Sen. Sam Nunn is a 47-year-old nonprofit executive on leave as CEO of former President George H.W. Bush's Points of Light foundation who is seeking the seat of retiring Sen. Saxby Chambliss. And she could well be one of the upsets that keeps Republicans from taking control of the Senate.
* Governor, Tennessee -- Just VOTE: Republican Gov. Bill Haslam is the best choice here after 225,617 primary voters elected 72-year-old Charles V. "Charlie" Brown as the Democratic nominee. But you must vote in the governor's race, because that vote will also affect the number of votes needed to pass constitutional amendments further down on the ballot -- some of which are clear and urgent choices.
* Governor, Georgia -- Jason Carter: This young state senator and grandson of former Georgia governor and President Jimmy Carter has energized Democrats hoping to transform Georgia's political landscape. Carter worked in the state Capitol as the most visible opponent to incumbent Gov. Nathan Deal's legislative agenda.
* U.S. Representative, Tennessee 3rd District -- Mary Headrick: She is intelligent, thoughtful and honest. She has been a computer analyst, a math teacher and an emergency room physician. She is a wife, a mother and a grandmother. And she makes informed decisions -- not a political ones. Here's Headrick on the crumbling Chickamauga Lock: Its completion requires $150 million annually for five years, and the financing requires reaching across party lines, talking, negotiating and ignoring anti-tax pledges to Grover Norquist. Here's Headrick on Social Security: It's is not broken; protect it and do not allow privatization nor Wall-Street invasion. She supports a real energy policy and raising the minimum wage.
* U.S. Representative, Tennessee 4th District -- Lenda Sherrell: This retired certified public accountant is running as a Democrat who is frustrated with the inability of Congress to do anything because "we're just paralyzed by partisanship." She is trying to unseat incumbent Scott DesJarlais, the tea party-leaning Republican known more for shame than accomplishment.
* State Representative, Tennessee 27th District -- Eric McRoy: This political newcomer's heart and political viewpoints are most in line with our Democratic, liberal and progressive bent. He has shown that he's a fast learner with plenty of ambition and determination.
* Wine in groceries -- Yes: This is a no-brainer. And it's all that's left to end decades-old, prohibition-era laws that keep wine sales out of food stores in our communities.
On the proposed amendments to the Tennessee Constitution, the Chattanooga Times recommends:
* Amendment 1 -- No: You don't have to be pro-choice to agree that Amendment 1 goes too far. This dangerous amendment would give the General Assembly more power over our personal and private medical decisions than we would have ourselves. Our lawmakers already have the power -- and are using it -- to regulate abortion, which now is a right under our state constitution.
* Amendment 2 -- Yes: The heart of this question is about who chooses judges in the Supreme and appellate courts. A yes means justices would be appointed by the governor who is elected by voters, approved by a two-thirds majority of both state houses whose members are elected by voters, and retained or fired at the end of their eight-year terms by voters.
* Amendment 3 -- No: No one is keen on an income tax, but this Tennessee Income Tax Prohibition would prohibit the legislature from imposing one ever. Proponents say a Constitutional guarantee of no income tax will send industry and businesses flocking to the Volunteer State. But something that has been shown to send business screaming away from Tennessee is our bottom-tier schools and the fact that industries say over and over that they can't find employable workers here. Please remember that state revenues are still a primary funder of education.
* Amendment 4 -- No: If Amendment 4 passes, the law would then require the legislature to vote on which other nonprofit organization events -- specifically veterans' hall fundraisers -- could host charitable gambling events as they did before the Tennessee Lottery bill was passed and before the Rocky Top scandal. It's a good bet that there's still too much room for corruption in charity gaming.