by Joe Courter
Is it too early to think about this? Has all the Republican primary soap opera/mud wrestling got you burned out already?
Well get ready. The day this paper was printed, Nov. 8, the fine citizens of Mississippi voted to determine if a fertilized egg is a human being. Luckily the sane people of the state voted down the Personhood Amendment, but this must be a wake-up call to sensible people everywhere that it made it to the ballot.
Your vote matters, and so does multiplying your vote by working to increase voter turn-out.
Our local elections for City Commission will be on Jan. 31, with early voting starting one week earlier. This will also be the Republican primary, so the R’s will be out in force.
This does not bode well for the commission races as Democrats and other non-Republicans won’t be as motivated to turn out.
There is a district race and an at-large race for the City Commission. There are two announced candidates in the district race and eight in the at-large race.
As of now, we like Yvonne Hinson-Rawls in the district race and both James Ingle and Lauren Poe (somewhat less) in the at-large race.
Poe is a more middle-of-the-road Democrat, while Ingle is more progressive and working class oriented.
With that many candidates in the at-large race, a run-off is likely, and that would be held on Feb. 28.
The last day to register to vote to be eligible for the Jan. 31 elections is Jan. 3. The next Iguana will be out in mid-January, and we’ll have more details on candidates and elections then.