When Rex McCarty's attorney, Gerald Gray, sent a letter to Willie Mae Kilgore's office (she is the County Registrar of Scott County) asking her to resign due to valid concerns about her ability to run a fair and impartial election, I knew the Kilgore boys would be upset. After all, they are two of the biggest mama's boys in the Commonwealth. Now, this whining appears to be contagious as Terry Kilgore's reelection campaign manager, Thomas Baker, seeks to twist McCarty's and Gray's valid concerns into a simple name calling affair. In today's edition of the Kingsport Times News (www.timesnews.net, registration required), Baker calls such tactics "despicable" and in "poor taste" and that Mr. McCarty "has no serious political agenda." Baker goes on to insult the good people of Massachusetts and New York, where I have many friends, by saying that only lowlifes from the Northlands would engage in such tactics such as smearing the fine mother of our esteemed delegate and former Attorney General.
I disagree on all counts, Mr. Baker and Mr. Kilgore. The truth is NEVER in poor taste or despicable. Willie Mae Kilgore is the subject of a major investigation into election fraud that allegedly transpired last May and most likely has occurred since she took office in 1979. As a public servant, especially one who has two sons participating in major elections in this region and state this fall, Willie Mae Kilgore's role in her sons' campaign is a valid reason for concern.
Terry Kilgore certainly has no right to accuse Mr. McCarty of using unfair tactics. Merely stating concerns about the electoral process in a truthful and fair manner is not an unfair tactic. Comparing that to the machine politics of Boss Tweed or the Rascal King of Boston is not only ridiculous, it's completely hypocritical given the Kilgore boys' own use of such tactics in local and state elections during the past dozen years.
So continue to whine about unfair tactics, Mr. Kilgore and Mr. Baker. If you feel Mr. McCarty is being so unfair, why don't you call in your brother's slimy henchman, Scott Howell? At least he knows how to be tough and unfair at the same time. Meanwhile, those of us in the First District are listening and laughing at you both as you try to defend the undefendable and twist the truth using your typical whiny retorts through the Kingsport Times-News.