Greetings, my fellow civic-minded neighbors!
Jared Sullivan here. I bring good news! It’s once again time to exercise your hard-won right to vote and participate in our representative democracy! What a blessed privilege!
The bad news is that, when it comes to the Williamson County Commission primary races, the ballot is loaded with cranks, Christian nationalists, and rightoids whose brains are utterly pickled by Fox News propaganda!
Which is why you need to vote!
The Williamson County Commission is super-duper important. It has a $903 million annual budget, the bulk of which — $563 million — goes to our very-fine public schools. So don’t sit out this one.
Early voting runs from now until April 30, followed by election day on May 5. Your district number is on your voter-registration card.
Since the GOP controls Williamson County, these primary races are sort of the main show.
You can only vote in one primary, so you need to decide whether to pull a GOP or Dem ballot. The GOP races are higher stakes and more competitive, which is why — and the local Dems will hate me for saying this, and I don’t blame them — I think you should vote in the GOP primary if you can bring yourself to do that. If that’s hard to stomach — well, I get it, but try to think of yourself (for just a single day) as a progressive Republican à la Fiorello Laguardia or Nelson Rockefeller.*
The GOP candidates are an extremely mixed bag, and, in my view, the reasonable people of Williamson County, right and left, should nix the cranks from consideration as quickly as possible. And if you don’t vote in the GOP primary, you get no say in who will be our next county mayor, since a Dem isn’t running for the spot. And you can always vote for a Dem in the August 6 general election. (I’ll cover the Dems in an email ahead of that election.)
Anyway, here’s who I would vote for if you care about good governance:
COUNTY MAYOR
VOTE FOR ANDY MARSHALL
He’s the owner of Puckett’s and other restaurants; he has lived in Williamson County for more than 50 years; and he has donated a fortune to charity, a strong signal of his character, in my view. He’ll have to learn the job, but he doesn’t strike me as a guy who will blow up anything. Moreover, he has won endorsements from folks I really respect, including former District-65 House Rep. Sam Whitson and former WCS school-board member Nancy Garrett.
DO NOT — FOR THE LOVE OF ALL THINGS GOOD AND RIGHT — VOTE FOR MARY SMITH!!!
Smith currently serves on the Commission and is part of what I think of as the crank contingent. She has won endorsements from the extremist group Moms for Liberty and State Rep. Gino Bulso, one of the most odious lawmakers in Tennessee (and, I kid you not, a staunch defender of cousin marriage). And she pals around with mask-off racist Andy Ogles.
As you might expect from such dubious endorsements, Smith has worked against Williamson County Schools: in 2024, she was one of two county commissioners out of 24 to vote against a much-needed capital-improvement plan. And she appears so obsessed with reducing the county’s debt — a boogeyman issue — that she seems inclined to cut services to make it happen. Moreover, she opposes county involvement in creating affordable housing.
NOW THE DOWN-BALLOT COUNTY COMMISSION RACES
Here’s a sample GOP ballot so you can see everyone who’s running.
You can vote for two candidates in each district. Most districts have three or more GOP contenders, so there are lots of names to consider.
In my recommendations, I went with the best or, more often, least-bad options for each district. I favored candidates who, above all, expressed support for our public schools, since (1) our public schools are the economic bedrock of our community, and (2) being pro-public schools is a pretty good indicator of whether a candidate is community minded or not.
I weeded out candidates who are endorsed by Moms for Liberty and/or known to be ghoulish. And if those criteria didn’t produce an obvious choice, I weeded out anyone who listed reducing the county’s debt as their #1 priority in a recent Williamson Herald interview series. I’m certainly in favor of fiscal responsibility, but Williamson County’s debt is not absurd given the growth and county’s wealth, and among the local GOP “reduce the debt” seem to be bywords for “let’s gut services so taxes never, ever in a million years inch up one cent.” (Also: what a boring answer!? You can think of no bigger problem facing Williamson County than debt service?)
Anyway, here’s my list. Don’t throw shoes at me if you disagree. There’s not tons of reporting or public info on many of these folks.
Vote for…
District 1: Ricky D. Jones, Andrew Mitchell
District 2: Diane Pedrick Giddens, Judy Lynch Herbert
District 3: Only two candidates running, so there’s no real choice
District 4: Jeff Goodspeed, Michelle McGuire
District 5: Rob Verell
District 6: Only two candidates running, so there’s no real choice
District 7: Nancy Bailey, Tom Tunnicliffe
District 8: Only two candidates running, so there’s no real choice
District 9: Only two candidates running, so there’s no real choice
District 10: Cheryl Brown, Meghan Guffee
District 11: Sean R. Aiello, Eric McElroy
District 12: Brian Clifford, Kahn Garrett
You’ll be voting for the Williamson County School Board, too. But all races but one — District 10 — are uncontested in the GOP primary. For District 10, I’d vote for Ali Adair.
OK! That’s it for now. You can see a list of early-voting sites here.
*If you vote in the GOP primary, you’ll have to sign a form saying you’re a “bona-fide member” of the party. Sign it and move on. You may legally vote in another party’s primary under Tennessee law, despite whatever the form says.