My wife Julie loves the Olympics. I have never fully understood the fascination, but I appreciate and respect her excitement when another four years circles around, and we stay glued to the TV for a week or so.

Few Olympic sports get me all that jazzed, particularly sports of the winter Olympics. Most are difficult for most Southerners to comprehend ever doing. Let’s see, put on a skintight suit and a helmet and jump — along with three of my friends — into a gravity-powered rocket careening down an ice slide at speeds that would get me a ticket on U.S. 61 … No thanks.

For me, my four-year spectator sport is the sport of local politics.

Julie can have the speed skating and the curling matches; I’ll take the competition for the favor of local voters. It’s far more interesting to watch candidates run for the finish line on Election Day.

While I have absolutely zero interest in ever running for a public office, I’m fascinated by the rare few who do.

I like to understand what makes them tick, if that’s possible, and what makes them want so badly to run for office.

In 10 days, Adams County voters will head to the polls to choose their Democratic and Republican nominees to fill a number of county leadership positions.

Given the slate of Democratic candidates running, the Republican poll workers will likely need to bring some reading materials to keep their minds occupied.

All of the county’s supervisor posts are up for grabs, save District 2’s David Carter, who was re-elected by default when no one challenged him. Perhaps no one is happier about Carter’s lack of opposition than his wife, who recently gave birth to the couple’s third child. Congratulations.

Perhaps among the hottest races, however, may be for the position of top lawman in the county.

The race for Adams County’s sheriff position pits three Democrats in the primary — incumbent Chuck Mayfield is challenged by former deputies Randy Freeman and Travis Patten.

The winner will face an independent, Natchez police officer Elvis Prater, in the general election.

Chancery and circuit court clerks’ positions are up for grabs as well as coroner, constable, state lawmakers and a pile of other offices.

The myriad of candidates, particularly for county supervisor, can be confusing some times.

The newspaper’s editorial board is working its way through interviewing the candidates for sheriff, supervisor, chancery court clerk and circuit court clerk. We plan to publish our endorsements for those positions in the next week.

Lots of people have asked me, “Why does the newspaper even bother to make political endorsements?”

It’s simple — we feel it’s important to do our homework on the candidates and say without bias who is the best candidate for the job at hand.

We know we’re not perfect and that our political bend may not match yours, but we try to look not at personal favorites, but who literally has the skills and personality needed to succeed in the role.

Through the years, we’ve chosen some candidate who we know likely don’t have a snowball’s chance in you know where of winning, but we choose them anyway. Often, though we may not print the gory details; we may have inside knowledge of a candidate that swayed our decision, but that isn’t public knowledge.

For instance, a few years ago, we knew a candidate for an office with responsibility over millions of dollars of public funds had bounced checks to the newspaper and to other businesses as well. A person’s personal finances are rarely subject to a news story, but the knowledge of this weighed on our decision of who to choose, with the logic being — if the person struggles to balance his own finances, what makes them apt to do better when taxpayer money is on the line?

This year’s races are no different, with lots of intrigue, innuendo and accusations. We’ll work hard to cut through the talk and get to the facts as we make our nominations. Stay tuned.

Oh if only figure skating were this interesting.

 

Kevin Cooper is publisher of The Natchez Democrat. He can be reached at 601-445-3539 or kevin.cooper@natchezdemocrat.com.