Wanted: Candidates who want to run as Democrats in this year’s elections in Giles County.
“We need to see if we can get some Democrats. Otherwise, it’s going to be all Republicans and independents,” Tom Gattis, Giles County Democratic Party chairman, said of the ballots for this year’s elections.
He spoke at the March meeting of the Giles County Democratic Party.
Party members agreed to hold a caucus on March 31 to interview potential candidates from a list supplied by the Tennessee Democratic Party.
April 7 is the deadline for turning the list of candidates to run in the Democratic primary to the Giles County Election Commission.
Upcoming elections include the May 3 State and County Primary Election, the Aug. 4 State and Federal Primary and State and County General Election and the Nov. 8 State and Federal General Election.
April 4 is the voter registration deadline for the May 3 primary. Early voting runs from April 13-28, and the absentee voting deadline is April 26.
Lois Aymett, a former Giles County Fifth District Commissioner, is running for the position, one of three county commission posts from the district.
She was elected county commissioner in 2014 and did not get a second term in 2018.
Aymett also is running as an independent, saying that she wants to represent people from both parties and differing viewpoints.
Her positions appeal across party lines and concern issues of common interest, she said.
While sympathetic to many Democratic positions, Aymett said she still chose to run as an independent,
“You still have to get elected,” she said.
City of Pulaski Councilman Hardin Franklin has urged the Tennessee Democratic Party to make party positions known, so voters can contrast them with Republicans.
“We do it, and they (Republicans) are going to get credit for it,” he said.
An example, he said, was the federal infrastructure bill passed by Congress, mostly with Democratic votes, though some Republicans who did not vote for the bill will claim credit for passage.
“You can’t get elected, if people don’t know what you stand for,” Franklin said.
In other business:
• Giles County Democrats voted to apply for a grant from the Tennessee Democratic Party to help local parties concentrate on projects such as voter registration, candidate support and party development.
Applying for the grant helped the local party develop a vision statement, said Rush, who chaired the committee that wrote the application.
• In a report on the Giles County Commission, commissioner Mike Cesarini said commissioners approved money for more Ambulance Service employees, and he said the county run Ambulance Service was proving more and more costly. The Ambulance Service is adopting a different employee work schedule.
• April 19 is the next meeting of the county democrats.