657. What happened to October?

Before October slips through the hourglass into the history books let me write a few words. First, Happy Hallowe'en. Hallowe'en has long been my favorite holiday for a variety of reasons. Of course, one of them is its proximity to Election Day, which is also a favorite day of mine. Through the magic of calendars, Hallowe'en and Election Day fall as close together as possible this year. I have no idea if that is good or bad, I just know that it is.

With Election Day starting about 46 hours from now, at least in Kentucky, a few comments are in order, but only a few. I will no doubt have more afterwards addressing what I believe will be the manifestation of certain decisions which were made or were failed to be made resulting in certain results for this or that candidate.

I should start by saying that I am a paid adviser to two of the campaigns, those of Greg Fischer for Mayor and John Yarmuth for reelection to the Congress. I expect each of those candidates to be successful on Tuesday and that will be a good thing for the voters of Louisville and Jefferson County, which, technically speaking, can still be considered as separate entities if one is speaking geographically. Louisville, in this case, represents the former City of Louisville, now known as the Louisville Urban Services District. Jefferson County is a constitutional subdivision of the Commonwealth of Kentucky. For the record, the only thing in this town known, erroneously, as Louisville Metro is the government which, for the record, is officially called Louisville-Jefferson County Metro. Nomenclature matters. But, I digress.

In addition to the races for mayor and congress, residents of Jefferson County will also be choosing one-half of their government's legislative council. While there are several being contested and more than a few may turn out an incumbent, one being closely watched is the 25th District, in southwestern Jefferson County, where Democratic candidate David Yates is working far harder than many candidates usually do to defeat Republican Doug Hawkins. Councilman Hawkins has represented the area since the new government's inception and is well known as casting a NO vote on each of Mayor Abramson's budgets since his election. Another council race being monitored is that in the 6th District, which covers territory in Old Louisville, California, and the South End, and, for the record, has no territory in Russell or Shelby Park, which is counter to what the Courier-Journal and at least one major party candidate regularly report. The race in the 6th was created by the unfortunate death of George Unseld. Through a series of interesting machinations, which for a local political junkie was like finding the proverbial pot o' gold at the end of a rainbow, the majority-Democratic council seated a registered Independent to serve until this upcoming election is certified. The local Democratic Party then selected a candidate whose presence in the district dates back only fifteen months. There is also the specter of a write-in campaign by a very popular Democrat which many locals pols give more than a fighting chance at winning. And, in this overwhelmingly Democratic district, there is even a Republican candidate whose husband appears to be supporting the write-in Democrat. I've done my best to avoid it all as I am very aware there are people interested in having me removed from my Democratic Party post should I cross any By-Law -placed bars while doing my usual election processes. I'm well aware of who these people are and I am watching them as closely as they are watching me, which, frankly, is a lot of fun.

We've also got quite a bit of our local judiciary on the ballot and while I haven't participated in any of those races other than a few contributions here and there, I am hopeful all of them are successful. Four judges which have recently been appointed to the bench by Governor Beshear are worthy of being retained for the balance of their respective terms. They are Circuit Judges Olu Stevens and Brian Edwards, and District Judges Sadiqa Reynolds and Erica Lee Williams. I am also supporting and voting to reelect District Judges Claude Prather and Katie King. Finally, where I live in Jefferson County, we are also having a race for the local school board. In that race I am supporting the appointed incumbent, Ms. Porter.

That's all for now. We've two full more days of campaigning left. But for now, I'm off to church on this All Hallows Eve, the 23rd Sunday after Pentecost.

Happy Hallowe'en.