Live from Music Row Monday morning on The Tennessee Star Report with Michael Patrick Leahy – broadcast on Nashville’s Talk Radio 98.3 and 1510 WLAC weekdays from 5:00 a.m. to 8:00 a.m. –  host Leahy welcomed the creator of tennvoterguide.com Craig Huey to the newsmaker line to review his recommended list of candidates running in Williamson County.

Leahy: We are joined now on our newsmaker line by the man behind the Tennessee Voter Guide, tennvoterguide.com, how to vote for and not against your values. Craig Huey, we’re going to talk about Williamson County. Good morning, Craig.

Huey: How are you?

Leahy: We’re doing great. Tennvoterguide.com. So you want to start off with either the school board or the county commission, which one?

And then we’ll get to the controversial judicial picks in the last part of this segment. Which one do you want to do first, the school board or county commission?

Huey: Do you want to go down every single candidate? Because this election is so important. It’s about taxes, it’s about regulations. It’s about force-masking your kids. There are all kinds of issues on the ballot.

And what we’ve done is we researched all the candidates and we found out who are the ones that will stand up and protect the taxpayers, protect the kids, and be able to vote consistently.

The fact is there’s so much deception out there, so much false advertising, so much confusion, and people just don’t know how to vote. So what we’ve done is we’ve made it easy.  All you do is go into the polling booth, you’ve got your cellphone – you can take a look at who’s being recommended.

We rate them from one being horrific to a few of them who get five stars, which means these people have a history of consistency and you can trust that they’re not going to compromise.

Michael, the weirdest thing for Tennessee versus so many other states in almost every race, on the surface they are Republican, yet there are these establishment Republicans who compromise, who are just as bad as the Democrats and willing to increase taxes and increase regulations and be able to impose government controls over the lives of the individual. And so we’ve taken a look and we found the good candidates versus the ones you can’t trust.

Leahy: Do you want to start with Williamson County School Board?

Huey: Well, sure. With the school board, you basically have some really great candidates. In District 2, you’ve got Dan Cash. And what’s interesting is he’s an incumbent, and he was one of the ones fighting against the mask mandates.

He’s one who understands that the curriculum in the Williamson County schools is teaching Critical Race Theory and all kinds of inappropriate indoctrination of the kids. And so he wants to get rid of that.

He, in fact, gets a five-star rating. And he’s running against an Independent, which he is almost like, saying you’re running against the Democrat in most cases, not all. And this person supports the curriculum and defends what the school is doing. It’s a very clear race.

Leahy: District 2, Williamson County School Board, your recommendation of tennvoterguide.com is Dan Cash the Republican? How about in District 4?

Because they’re up in staggered terms, there are 12 districts this year. It’s the district ending in even numbers. Who’s your recommendation in District 4 for the Williamson County School Board?

Huey: Without a doubt, we’re recommending Elliot Franklin. Absolutely fabulous. Five stars. Stands up for the kids, stands up for the parents, stands up for what’s right.

He’s running against, for example, a Democrat who is a member of the leadership of the Salvation Army. He has all these credentials to make him sound like a good candidate. But here’s one of the dangers in Williamson County:

There are only about 50,000 Democrats and then another 5,000, 10,000, Democrat supporters. But they run as a slate and they’re more organized than the Republicans, and they’re learning how to use advanced marketing to be able to get out the vote. So he’s a danger. But Elliot is absolutely wonderful.

Leahy: We’re running into a little bit of a time crunch here. We’re just going to go through the board and then we’ll quickly go through the next districts, and then I want you to talk about this judicial district, which is kind of controversial. So in District 6, who do you recommend?

Huey: We’re recommending that voters vote for Deborah Pace, the Independent. She’s absolutely wonderful. Basically, with Deborah, you’ve got somebody who’s against the masking, against the curriculum, just on the right side of all.

Leahy: Very quickly so we can get to the judicial. Tell us 8, 10 and 12

Huey: Donna Clements fighting for parental rights.

Leahy: District 8.

Huey: District 10, we’re recommending Doc Holladay, an Independent.

Leahy: And how about District 12? Who do you recommend there?

Huey: Wow. Definitely Jamie Lima. He stands out. He’s a newcomer.

Leahy: Jamie Lima in District 12. And so here’s the thing, and these are your recommendations at tennvoterguide.com. We’re going to have the Williamson Families PAC on and others if they want to recommend here as well.

Now, what’s going on in this judicial race? Williamson Families PAC had recommended in one of the cases there the juvenile court judge primary election.

It’s Connie Reguli and Sharon Guffee. Connie Reguli had been endorsed by Williamson Families PAC. They withdrew that. There’s some controversy there. What’s your bottom line on that particular race?

Huey: At this point, I’m still recommending Connie, and I’m going to be taking a look today at the final decision. But I’m very confident I will, and I’ll tell you why. It’s a very sad situation for judges.

We evaluate judges not only here in Tennessee but nationwide. I got to tell you, this is one of the most important races, and Connie got a nine-star out of 10. She’s a strict constructionist. She’s a fighter for parental rights and a fighter for religious liberty. She’s really great.

Sharon, her opponent, only gets a six because she’s kind of an establishment judge who donates to Democrats and who compromises on a lot of things. He’s kind of the good-old-boy club among the judges. And you can’t count on her decision-making.

Listen to the full interview here:

– – –

Tune in weekdays from 5:00 – 8:00 a.m. to the Tennessee Star Report with Michael Patrick Leahy on Talk Radio 98.3 FM WLAC 1510. Listen online at iHeart Radio.
Photo “Craig Huey” by Craig Huey. Background Photo “Williamson County, Tennessee, Courthouse” by Ichabod. CC BY-SA 3.0.