Today is the day, that day of days. The day when Walker County will finally choose to free itself from decades of suffering under compromised, ethically corrupt sole commissioners – or elect a candidate who’s refused to make himself obligated to out-of-state deep-pocket interests, who will fight to put the sole commissioner system to an end.

Will Walker actually do that, or replace one bad (Bebe) with another (Whitfield)?

The polls are open today 7-7, with huge turnout. We should know the results before bedtime. (Find out where YOU vote here.)

After you vote, go get a free donut at the Krispy Kreme in Chattanooga, Rome, or Dalton. If you weren’t already motivated enough..           

As LU revealed back in the spring (without naming names), Shannon Whitfield didn’t decide on his own to run for commissioner – he was drafted.

A group of Republican Party leaders realized Bebe was done and met last winter to choose The One who they would push to replace her. Their first choice dropped out and was replaced by Whitfield.

Others who might have run were apparently offered “advisor” roles if they would stay out of the race, while at least one other was bullied to keep his name off the ballot.

The only other candidate who tried to run as a Republican, Mike Peardon, was given equal help by the party, but its leaders campaigned for his opponent (Whitfield) and made fun of him publicly before the primary.

Did they choose Whitfield to replace Bebe because they didn’t like how she was governing? Or because they realized she won’t be reelected and they needed somebody else to do for them what she’s done for the last sixteen years?   

Whether you vote for Lamb or Whitfield, Bebe Heiskell will be out of a job come January – and she’s blaming LU for her demise.

She accuses The Underground of “stalking” her. Heiskell also suggests LU is part of a Republican Party group that turned on her and picked Whitfield to replace her – which is pretty ridiculous since we don’t care for the Party or their current candidate for the same reasons we never could stand her.

“Local Republican leaders say they have nothing to do with the blog. Mike Cameron, the party’s Rossville precinct chairman, said he has an about who writes the blog, but they aren’t in the party. ‘I don’t like people who hide behind pseudonyms,’ he said.”

Mr. Cameron liked LU until we refused to let his chosen candidate, Shannon Whitfield, have this election without a fight. Now he’s helping Team Whitfield crap on us, even though LU (per Heiskell and others) paved the road that Team Whitfield is driving on now.   

Most people don’t appreciate politicians exploiting children for their own gain.

A few years ago many were outraged when a group of school kids up north were singing songs about the president in class.

Is it acceptable now to have elementary cheerleaders doing chants for Shannon Whitfield during a public event?

Whitfield had a booth and signs at the GNTC-sponsored Ridgeland-hosted Bobcat Cheer Extravaganza in September. Far as we know, no other candidates were invited to participate.

Little kids doing a school activity were being used to promote the candidate, in a tax-funded facility.

Former Walker School Board member Karen Stoker apparently put this together, she’s a big Whitfield backer.

A few years back a parent was allowed to pass out pro-SPLOST campaign material at Gilbert. That was bad enough, for Bebe’s benefit, but this is just beyond acceptable.   

The worst things Bebe has done in her political career, actions which have (eight years later) led to her demise, are all related to her purchase of Mountain Cove Farms.

The money to buy that farm came from the 2008 SPLOST sales tax. In 2008, Heiskell promoted renewing SPLOST tax, saying (as usual) she would use the money for roads, libraries, and other essential projects.

As she campaigned for the tax, she had paperwork in her desk, already signed, agreeing to spend much of the SPLOST funds on Mountain Cove Farms. The image here shows the deed was filed in March of 2009, but the documents were signed and notarized back in December 2006. So she knew, in 2008, exactly what she’d do when the tax was renewed.

Once the tax was approved by voters, Heiskell filed the papers and bought that farm, which has since then dragged Walker County into a budget crisis.

As a result of that budget crisis, last September Heiskell mortgaged the future, giving county properties (including the farm) to her Development Authority as part of a loan that will be paid off with a special property tax we’ll be saddled with until 2045.

No matter who wins the election, we’re stuck with that one – thanks to Bebe.     

Perry Lamb, on the pitfalls of taking huge donations for political campaigns:

“Our politicians in this county care about themselves, they care about the people that fund their campaigns. They don’t care about you and I, or the other people.”   

Walker Republican Party Chairman steps up to defend his candidate’s past, saying we should just ignore it.

Shannon Whitfield’s past support for Bebe until two years ago, his ethical problems, the way his campaign team treats people – that’s all just prattle, rants about the past.

So we should forget Whitfield’s past because it’s inconvenient, but not Bebe’s past? How are we to judge a candidate if we can’t evaluate what they’ve done before?

Should we forget how the local Republicans now pushing Whitfield down our throats are the ones who kept Bebe where she is until a year ago? How they ignored HER past AND present in 2004, 2008, and 2012 because she was “their” candidate after changing parties? How did that work out for everybody?

The Republican Party (which Mr. Williamson was not a leader of until recently, we admit) would also love you to forget that LU was the only public place openly calling Heiskell out for what she was doing from 2009 to about 2014. We said don’t vote for her in 2008. We said don’t vote for her in 2012. We said don’t vote for her SPLOST in 2008, and again in 2013. They were openly attacking us for the positions we took then, and now they want to say they were the ones who opposed her.

(Also don’t forget the “past” of the Republican Party intentionally keeping the issue of sole commissioner off the ballot for years, and how two of their three elected state legislators openly reject the push to change that system now.)

They said we were wrong then about things they agree with now. They say we’re wrong now about things most of Walker County will see in a few years if they fool you into backing Whitfield now.   

The City of Lookout Mountain recently posted a notice clarifying that it did NOT send out a letter endorsing Bebe Heiskell.

Residents of the county’s smallest city got letters in the mail last month with the city’s return address, encouraging residents to support Heiskell’s reelection. The letter was signed by “City of Lookout Mountain Resident.”

Hopefully nobody was fooled by the trick.

(Government entities cannot legally endorse candidates, although Chickamauga has come awfully close a few times.)   

Sunday Perry Lamb threw down the gauntlet, releasing his personal income tax returns from 2014 and 2015 and challenging opponents to do the same.

Bebe Heiskell actually responded and agreed to do it, putting her 2015 tax forms on Facebook a few hours later.

Candidate Whitfield, who claims he’ll be transparent after he takes office but has so far failed to do anything beyond the minimum required by law, has not shared his returns or anything else about his personal finances or the finances of his company – and his spokesbrother says the whole thing is “crap.”

Do you really think Team Whitfield will start being transparent if they win, when they haven’t been transparent at all so far?

Be careful in your furvor to replace Bebe that you don’t replace her with someone as bad or worse.       

Shannon Whitfield’s campaign manager makes another statement we’ll kindly call “untrue.”

Whitfield Oil was given government property in the 90’s to expand their company and has been given government business “for generations” without competitive bidding.

Now their chosen son, who lacks education but has a fancy title he got because of his last name, is running for office with money given to him by business interests, while he contributes not a dime of his own wealth to get a job that pays at least $113,000 a year plus benefits.

Bobby Teems himself has given more money and time to getting Whitfield elected than Whitfield himself or any of his family have.

That’s “work” huh?

How DID Whitfield Oil get millions in sales every year from Walker County “for generations” without submitting bids?

Shannon Whitfield admits here he had to give Bebe a campaign donation in 2012 to keep that money flowing. He also gave her money, through the company, in 2011 and 2014.

Records from before 2011 aren’t available, but would it be a surprise to find him cutting her checks long before then in return for guaranteed business?

Why didn’t he report her bribe demands to the state? Because, until last year anyway, he was making good money from her.     

Shannon Whitfield and Bebe Heiskell continue going around in circles over rumors they’ve supposedly started over each other, with Whitfield bringing in a lawyer to demand Heiskell apologize.

Whitfield’s lawyer is Keith Edwards, who’s supposed to be an unbiased part of the county elections board.

How’s he supposed to be unbiased when he’s taking money from Shannon Whitfield? What if the board has to make a decision about something like provisional ballots or recounts that impact the results of the vote ?   

What about the other major state-level issues being voted on today, the Georgia ballot referendums?

Just say “no” to all four.

New taxes, new legislative control over a formerly independent aspect of state government, Jeff Mullis’ fireworks tax, and state intervention into local schools.

Amendment 1 is the one people are discussing most.

Normally LU favors of that kind of system, taking over failing schools and giving them to the state IF the local system can’t get their job done. But it’s concerning that the ballot language is so deceptively worded, and we don’t trust anybody currently in leadership in Georgia (especially Nathan Deal) to handle it correctly if it passes.

So that’s a no.   

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