Hallelujah!!!! Thought I was going to have to pick none of the above.

I hate to tell you William, but that would be a better pick.

Does Jackson put up a sign now or wait until qualifying is over?

This guy just left a local firm to establish his own practice. Now he wants to run for mayor? I don't think so.

Maybe the "practice" isn't taking off as he'd hoped, you reckon?

It may not have been his idea to leave the firm.

Maybe he left to do this.

Fact is he isn't Kyle or Stanford. That's all I need to know.

William, no he did not leave to do this. He left to start his own practice and it is not doing so well, so the timing of this could be considered suspicious. You think a guy that was a part of the defense team that got that degenerate Daniel Wade Moore off his murder charge on a technicality would be able to drum up decent business in defending those charged with crimes.

William, I would ask why you did not like Kyle? What did he do during his term that makes you against him? I always ask people in the city "why did you vote out Kyle for Stanford"? I don't live in the Decatur City limits, so I don't vote for the mayor, nor do I have any type of association with Kyle. However, when the guy was mayor, it seemed that Decatur grew at a decent rate, bringing in new retail developments. Before he took office, Decatur had seemed stagnant. Unfortunately he was mayor during the real estate market crash, which was of course not his fault, but to bring in what he did in such a volatile market was pretty amazing. He also tried to get that Bass Pro Shops development pushed, but the council balked on it. There were fears that the city investment and tax breaks would have lost the city money, but many economic experts (and towns with similar developments) were on record as saying that the jobs brought in from the development, plus the tax revenue from sales, made the development a worthy venture.

We are paying Wally terry to babysit Stanford. What does Decatur need a mayor for at all if the current one has to have a babysitter? The guy represents the kid suing rolando McClain. He's probably doing alright. Why do you think winning a case would be bad for his business. Those Eyster lawyers seemed to be doing pretty good last time I saw them which was Sunday at church and I know for a fact he left on his own. That's coming from one of them. They were actually surprised but they also didn't think he would run for mayor.

As I recall, it was under the Kyle Administration that the local citizenry awoke one morning to discover that the sales tax had risen from 8% to 9% WITHOUT A VOTE!!!! - and this, from a mayor and council elected to reduce spending. That is why Mayor Kyle got the boot. Can we afford to elect Mr. Kyle - again?

Otis, what rock have you been living under?

Otis, I'm afraid you recall incorrectly. The sales tax increase was approved under the Fowler/Woller administration. Kyle defeated Fowler, Hammon was elected when Woller decided not to run again, Montgomery was defeated - I forgot by whom. All these were the result of the uproar over the tax increase. Hammon ran vowing to remove the tax- A promise he didn't nor could he keep. Don Kyle was perhaps on track to become the best mayor Decatur ever had and that includes Dukes and Fowler, both of whom I have deep respect for. I suggest everyone do their research on the candidates this year instead of maintaining the favorite Decatur voting mantra of "Throw them all out."

Thanks, I stand corrected.