Our 3-year-old daughter Anna is no stranger to the election process. Already in her brief life she has voted several times alongside her mother or me.

Trips to the polling place usually mean we run across friends, neighbors and acquaintances. Young Anna has met poll workers Valencia Hall and Catherine Ellard.

She’s also become fond of suggesting that we vote for “Mr. Ben” Hillyer who leads The Democrat’s news team. Thus far we’ve resisted the urge to vote for Ben.

Obviously, her young mind doesn’t grasp all that goes on in the elections process, but we try. I spent most of the 10-minute drive home from Kmart once trying to explain to Anna who Alderwoman Sarah Carter Smith was and what an alderwoman does for the city.

I’m fairly certain my explanation didn’t sink in, but perhaps the gist — that city workers work for the good of all of us — may have made at least a little sense.

Julie and I thought carrying her to the polls would instill a sense of civic pride and duty in her young mind.

After a couple of comments last week, we clearly still have years of work to make sure the process is fully grasped.

Anna, though years away from being old enough to vote, has already made up her mind about two candidates on Tuesday’s Natchez municipal primary ballot.

One day last week, we were headed home for lunch and decided to swing by Subway to pick up a quick sandwich.

As it turns out, Natchez mayoral candidate Darryl Grennell happened to be sitting at a table having lunch when we walked in. Grennell waved his hand and said something to Anna. She was pretty motionless and didn’t say a word at the time.

On the way home, she quizzed me about Grennell.

“Who was that man who talked to us, Daddy?”

“That was Mr. Darryl Grennell,” I said, talking toward the rear view mirror as we pulled onto John R. Junkin Drive. “He’s running for mayor.”

“What’s mayor?”

I struggle sometimes to explain things in a way she can understand, but I tried.

“The mayor is someone in charge of the whole city of Natchez.”

“Why is he in charge of Natchez?”

I tried to relate it to her preschool world.

“The mayor is kind of like Mrs. Chretia at your school,” I explained. “Mrs. Chretia is the director of your school. The mayor is the director of Natchez.”

That seemed to settle the matter for a bit.

When we got home, she spotted a small pile of political cards and mailouts on the counter — she began collecting those in last year’s county election season.

She rifled through the pile and asked, “Is that the man who talked to us at Subway?”

“Yes, Anna. That’s Mr. Grennell. He’s one of the people running for mayor.”

“Why did he send us this?”

“He wants us to vote for him.”

“We need to vote for him, Daddy.”

A wave, a smile and a kind word, and she was hooked.

A week or so prior the doorbell at the house rang on a Saturday and a nice young man was at the door campaigning for his mother, Natchez Municipal Court judge candidate Lisa Jordan Dale.

Her son was armed with the perfect bribery tool for a 3-year-old — a lollipop.

No sooner than the door shut, the questions started, and in the matter of a few minutes Anna declared the mother of the lollipop bearer had earned her full support.

Clearly, Anna isn’t ready to be let loose at the voting booth yet, but imagine how much simpler the political process would be if campaign spending were limited to simply smiles, waves and lollipops.

Come to think of it, the political season would be so much more pleasant if the negativity were replaced with smiles, and the nasty talk simply plugged with a lollipop.

 

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