Bullitt County's voting machine technician is a woman named Tina Drury. She ran away from me when I asked her who pays her. We found her all by herself in a room full of voting machines and upon seeing us videotaping, she literally ran out of the room and bolted down the stairs, and refused to answer who pays her. We have been unable to learn much about Tina Drury's qualifications, except that her grandfather was the voting machine technician before her.
NOT JUST IN KENTUCKY
Here is a short online video I ran across pertaining to Loving County Texas,
where a leading public official is explaining all the family relationships in
Loving County government.
http://www.brightcove.tv/title.jsp?title=662859766&channel=494910445&lineup=6633
34211
Several citizens in Knox County, Tennessee have been grousing online that the
county commission features the son of an ex-commissioner, the father of a
current commissioner, and the wife of another ex-commissioner. They say a former commissioner is now the Knox County Clerk (read: runs elections now). Before you say "that's just an online forum," well you're right, but I'm finding time after time that the locals know best, and for this reason, there is no substitute for field work if you want to know what's really going on.
NEPOTISM GONE WILD
And then there's Clay County, Kentucky. You won't get far researching Clay
County before you bump into a half-dozen Sizemores, who exist in abundance on both sides of the law. I just can't top this article, written by Bryan Burrough.
It illustrates the pitfalls of family-run government so eloquently you simply
must read these excerpts -- and bear in mind that ol' Crawdad Sizemore won his
latest election in May this year:
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
quote:
In Clay County, Ky., It Takes Some Doing To Avoid a Sizemore
The Wall Street Journal(24)
. . . Meet the powerful Sizemore clan, whose grip on this isolated mountain county is surpassed only by the violence that clings to its name. Bombings, murders, alleged jury tampering, bootlegging -- the saga of the Sizemores weaves together all the strange and troublesome themes of politics in Appalachia's hamlets.
There is Sheriff Harold Sizemore, whose father and predecessor as sheriff was
killed in a backwoods hollow by a sniper's bullets in 1969. There is County
Judge Carl "Crawdad" Sizemore. There is Constable "Black Jack" Sizemore, whose father was shot in the back by a county sheriff in 1922. And the tax assessor is James Sizemore, called a "double Sizemore" because his parents were both Sizemores.
. . . Indeed, with control over the two largest sources of jobs -- the schools
and the county payroll -- the Sizemores hold sway over much of Clay County's
populace. Few folks hereabouts, including the Sizemores' political opponents,
will criticize them
. . . To understand Clay County's contradictions, one must first understand the Sizemores -- which isn't easy since many Sizemores can't untangle their own family tree.
"There are about four or five sets of us, but as long as you're a Sizemore, you're a Sizemore, no matter what," says Black Jack Sizemore, the constable. "Above all, we stick together."
. . . They first came into prominence hereabouts because of what is now known as the great Sizemore feud of 1931. . . And before the killing stopped, family
members recall, nine Sizemores were dead, including a deputy sheriff ambushed by his two first cousins in an argument over election results.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
THE GREAT "TRUST ME" ELECTIONS FOLLY
NOT JUST IN KENTUCKY
Here is a short online video I ran across pertaining to Loving County Texas,
where a leading public official is explaining all the family relationships in
Loving County government.
http://www.brightcove.tv/title.jsp?title=662859766&channel=494910445&lineup=6633
34211
county commission features the son of an ex-commissioner, the father of a
current commissioner, and the wife of another ex-commissioner. They say a former commissioner is now the Knox County Clerk (read: runs elections now). Before you say "that's just an online forum," well you're right, but I'm finding time after time that the locals know best, and for this reason, there is no substitute for field work if you want to know what's really going on.
NEPOTISM GONE WILD
And then there's Clay County, Kentucky. You won't get far researching Clay
County before you bump into a half-dozen Sizemores, who exist in abundance on both sides of the law. I just can't top this article, written by Bryan Burrough.
It illustrates the pitfalls of family-run government so eloquently you simply
must read these excerpts -- and bear in mind that ol' Crawdad Sizemore won his
latest election in May this year:
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
quote:
In Clay County, Ky., It Takes Some Doing To Avoid a Sizemore
The Wall Street Journal(24)
. . . Meet the powerful Sizemore clan, whose grip on this isolated mountain county is surpassed only by the violence that clings to its name. Bombings, murders, alleged jury tampering, bootlegging -- the saga of the Sizemores weaves together all the strange and troublesome themes of politics in Appalachia's hamlets.
There is Sheriff Harold Sizemore, whose father and predecessor as sheriff was
killed in a backwoods hollow by a sniper's bullets in 1969. There is County
Judge Carl "Crawdad" Sizemore. There is Constable "Black Jack" Sizemore, whose father was shot in the back by a county sheriff in 1922. And the tax assessor is James Sizemore, called a "double Sizemore" because his parents were both Sizemores.
. . . Indeed, with control over the two largest sources of jobs -- the schools
and the county payroll -- the Sizemores hold sway over much of Clay County's
populace. Few folks hereabouts, including the Sizemores' political opponents,
will criticize them
. . . To understand Clay County's contradictions, one must first understand the Sizemores -- which isn't easy since many Sizemores can't untangle their own family tree.
"There are about four or five sets of us, but as long as you're a Sizemore, you're a Sizemore, no matter what," says Black Jack Sizemore, the constable. "Above all, we stick together."
. . . They first came into prominence hereabouts because of what is now known as the great Sizemore feud of 1931. . . And before the killing stopped, family
members recall, nine Sizemores were dead, including a deputy sheriff ambushed by his two first cousins in an argument over election results.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
THE GREAT "TRUST ME" ELECTIONS FOLLY
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