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Jimmy Duncan, Cindy McGill, Linda Jo Dees and Parkey Strader

The Nov. 2 election has attracted voter interest on a grand scale, as President Bush vies for reelection against Sen. John Kerry in the midst of a controversial war, rising oil prices and a stuttering national economy.

Voter registrations are up all over, including the Knoxville area, where Metro Pulse has endorsements to offer in races at the local level.

U.S. Rep. John J. Duncan Jr.

In the 2nd Congressional District, which includes Knoxville, Jimmy Duncan has earned another term in the seat he’s held since his father died in 1988.

This time, especially, Duncan has demonstrated the independence and character that have won our admiration, in spite of the fact that we often disagree with him on specific issues.

Duncan not only opposed the president on the war in Iraq, he broke with fellow Republicans and voted against its authorization in the House of Representatives, insisting that it was unjustified. He also voted against the Patriot Act and its renewal on the basis of the risks it presented to personal liberties that he, and we, hold dear and inviolable.

Although his clout in the Republican-controlled House suffered temporarily, his original courageous position may well be the only one left tenable if the situation in Iraq continues to deteriorate and the rights of Americans continue to erode under an overzealous Homeland Security/Justice Department cabal.

Duncan has also secured funding for programs and projects important to his district and his committee assignments: Governmental Reform; Resources; and Transportation and Infrastructure, are well-attuned to the needs and goals of his constituents. He chairs the Subcommittee on Water Resources and Environment, for instance, and is a member of subcommittees on forests and national parks.

Cindy McGill

Running for the state Senate in District 6, Cindy McGill is our choice to succeed the retiring statesman, Ben Atchley, a Republican who helped keep the Senate focused on issues that required and deserved bipartisan support.

We believe McGill, a working mother who’s a realtor for Heath Shuler Real Estate, is the logical successor to Atchley. A Democrat, she seems dedicated to espouse the aspirations of the people of Tennessee and her district, just as Atchley has for many years, rather than follow any strict party lines or pursue personal ambitions. Her positions on health care, education, the environment, and state finances show that she understands the problems of underfunding for essential state services, but that she’s realistic in her approach to the need for more state revenue.

Linda Jo Dees

For the state Senate’s 8th district seat serving Blount and Sevier Counties, Linda Jo Dees has our endorsement. A Friendsville nurse, she’s a Vietnam and Gulf War veteran who retired from the Army Reserve as a major and has wide experience in health care, which is one of her special areas of interest.

She’s an advocate of cutting TennCare costs by limiting abuses she’s seen, especially with certain prescription drugs such as painkillers that are prescribed too freely or are resold illegally on the street. She’d like to see benefits increased for seniors who qualify for TennCare.

At the same time, she says she’d like to see educational changes to provide better opportunities in early childhood, and she’d like to see the state take a more active role in preserving its hardwood forests; a regulation requiring loggers to replace hardwoods with hardwoods, rather than pines, makes sense to her and to us.

A Democrat, she refers to herself as a political moderate, much like Sen. Bill Clabough, the Republican who lost in the primary election. In that, she’ll make a better senator than the arch-conservative who brought down Clabough.

Parkey Strader

In the House 14th District race to replace the retired Republican, H.E. Bittle, the Republican candidate, Parkey Strader, is our choice. He served Knox County as its property assessor for years, got bored in his own retirement, and is now chief deputy to his successor in the assessor’s office. He has a reputation of listening to people’s concerns and a record of saving tax money in the efficient operation of the county office. We believe Strader would serve Tennessee and his district well in the state House.

Metro Pulse is not endorsing in other local elections, but there is one other House race in which one of the candidates raised a point we can’t resist mentioning. The candidate approached one of our advertising account executives, telling him to tell the Metro Pulse editors not to endorse him. You know who you are, and we won’t mention you by name for fear it might be taken as an endorsement, but we should tell you that before you mentioned it, the thought never crossed our mind.

October 14, 2004 • Vol. 14, No. 42 © 2004 Metro Pulse