In an open letter published on a local Facebook page, Republican candidate for the Georgia House from the 26th District, Tina Trent, wrote of her “disappointment,” accusing people in the Forsyth County Republican Party of “hypothesizing wildly,” and “misrepresenting…[her] record.” She expressed additional “disappointment in the behavior of several people at the Forsyth GOP meetings.” She accused the GOP presiding officer of inappropriately permitting her Republican opponent to “blurt out campaign ‘folderol’ (her word) prior to [her] scheduled presentation.” She accused the people at the Forsyth GOP of a “willful, orchestrated decision to not learn more about [her].” She accused them of “insincerity” and “whining.” She accused the GOP Executive Committee of treating her “inhospitably.” Finally, she accused her Republican opponent Marc Morris of trying to take over her time to speak, and in the process chided the GOP president for offering no intervention.
Subsequently, during a recent Tea Party debate, when asked about the hurtful comments of her Facebook letter, and how she might be able to “bridge the gap” to work with the Forsyth GOP having attacked them so vociferously, Ms. Trent explained that her attacks were, “funny things that happen with elections.” She followed expressing, “You say and do things during elections that don’t represent your character and are not ordinarily the way you conduct yourself in public.” She continued, “But then the genius of our system is that you get up and you have to work together to get things done… Election cycles are indeed bad…You have to get dirty and fight. But at the end of the day, you’re going to be sitting down in a room with those people, and honestly, most people out there expect us to do the business of government, and they really don’t care what’s happened in closed small rooms during an election.” She summed her comments saying, “They want us to come out and find solutions together. And so, I think the answer is, you just let the genius of the democratic process take place, and you wake up the morning after an election and you work with people that the day before you weren’t able to.”
This Tuesday, the good people of the 26th District will go to the polls to vote for a state representative. Their choices are among the two Republicans, Ms. Trent and Mr. Morris, and Democrat Steve Smith. Regarding Mr. Smith, who is a very likeable individual, his economic policy answers during the debate, advocating raising the minimum wage to close the economic gap between rich and poor, will likely not play well with the people of the 26th. Those people recognize that the minimum wage is designed as a starting point for high school kids working behind the counter at a fast food restaurant and the like. No one can expect to base a career and raise a family working for the minimum wage. And very few who work hard developing marketable skills will ever have to manage on a minimum wage anyway. So raising the minimum wage is just no answer for creating equity among socioeconomic classes, certainly not a policy the people of the 26th might be interested to adopt. In short, the Democratic Party playbook does not play around here. As genuinely nice as Mr. Smith is, it is doubtful the people of the 26th are ready for him to represent them—importantly of course, assuming they show up to vote.
And that brings us to the two remaining candidates, Tina Trent and Marc Morris. The question I would ask the people of the 26th is whether they prefer to be represented by an individual who would repeatedly and vociferously attack those in her own local party, as Tina Trent did recently in writing, but who then publicly expresses an expectation that those she viciously attacked should embrace her as if nothing happened should she win? Or as an alternative, would they prefer to be represented by one of their own, Marc Morris, whose reputation is one of congeniality, cooperation, promoting civic-mindedness and generosity of spirit?
As I wrote two weeks ago, Ms. Trent is very knowledgeable in those areas she has spent years studying, perhaps more knowledgeable than Mr. Morris, in some areas. But whereas Mr. Morris’ base of knowledge, and his disposition leave him open to listening and understanding the viewpoints of his potential constituents, and changing course on an issue should he learn better information, the people of the 26th should question whether the same can be said for Ms. Trent. To her credit she forthrightly placed her unbridled disposition on display on Facebook for people to read. What you see is what you get. But the same can be said for Mr. Morris. What you see is what you will get.
So the final question for the good people of the 26th is: What do you see? For what you decide is what Georgia will get. Please vote this coming Tuesday, November 7th. You can also vote at the Hampton Library of Forsyth Administration Building today (Friday the 3rd).
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