A PLEASANT SURPRISE

Sitting down to check out what's in today's Lakeland Ledger, I was pleasantly surprised to see that political columnist Bill Rufty has a feature --- a "Q & A" interview --- with new Polk County Democratic Party Chairwoman Nancy Simmons.

The former Polk County School Board member was elected to serve as interim chair back in September when predecessor Richard Blank resigned. She was elected permanently at the following meeting in October.

I was surprised because Rufty had done a piece on her following the October election. This time, Ms. Simmons gives her ideas on why and how Democrats have been out of favour locally in recent years. In the November election, the only Democrat elected to a countywide partisan post was Jean Reed to the County Commission. There are actually several other Democrats who serve in countywide positions, such as Supervisor of Elections Lori Edwards and Tax Collector Joe G. Tedder (both of whom are former State Representatives), but their current offices are nonpartisan.

It's a tough job, and it won't be easy to handle the various factions who believe that their way is the right way, but Nancy is a longtime teacher who I'm sure can and will use her classroom skills when necessary to keep things from getting out of line.