Newscoma

Over the weekend, during my weekend in Memphis, I met Adrienne Pakis-Gillon who is the democratic candidate running against Brian Kelsey in District 31.  It was a casual introduction where we talked briefly about the state of politics in the state and I found her to be very passionate and vibrant.

After our conversation, and I realize that I can only speak for myself, I found myself pondering why we democrats here in the state haven’t been pushing her candidacy more.  I take responsibility for my own actions here as I haven’t written about her either. She is a life-long democrat and having talked to her, the things that she spoke of gave me pause because she isn’t getting mired down in wedge issues (something Kelsey thrives on) and instead discussed practical solutions to issues affecting her district and the state as a whole.

Remember, not only will she be representing her district, she’ll be voting on legislation that would impact the entire state. And let’s review briefly how Kelsey has been, which has had shades of moving up the political ladder as his main objective.

Let’s take the time machine back, campers, to January when Kelsey was what Kleinheider called the “stuntbaby” and where Jeff Woods reported this as well:

First, Rep. Mike Turner accused Kelsey of making a nervous wreck out of Rep. Susan Lynn by filing an ethics complaint against House Speaker Kent Williams based on his supposed sexual harassment of her.

“Susan Lynn is in the hospital [Wednesday], and in my opinion, I think Brian Kelsey put her in there and I think his behavior is terrible,” Turner told Channel 2. “I think it’s sour grapes.”

Now, Turner and House Democratic leader Gary Odom say Kelsey offered to lay off Williams in exchange for a committee  chairmanship.

In those posts, there is a statement from Kelsey on what he was thinking back in the first days of the last legislative session here in Tennessee.  You can see a time-line here of what happened.

Now, we could talk about Kelsey all day long, but I return back to the issue at hand. As democrats, we need every seat we can get right now. We are looking at redistricting, our state has 10.5 percent unemployment and we need folks in Nashville who can see the big picture and not get mired in wedge issues for personal gain. Kelsey did that this year and I think he will do it again.

We just don’t need to shrug and say “whatever.” The democratic party in this state has done that for far too long. We may not agree on everything, but the one thing is we need to be is united when it comes to not disenfranchising good candidates who would be representing all of our interests in Nashville, no matter where we live. Pakis-Gillon needs voices and bloggers can help with that.

We can support her campaign by talking about her. Kelsey doesn’t need to be just handed a senate seat without a fight. As democrats, I think we need to talking about this race and we need to be lending our voice to Pakis-Gillon.

Although many of us can’t vote in this race, we can still put a flashlight on Memphis right now. We don’t need to be complacent at this point.

You can read more about Adrienne Pakis-Gillon and you can also join her Facebook. Just check into what she’s about and maybe write about it.