Knoxville Mayoral candidate Madeleine Rogero was to be found criticizing her run-off opponent and fellow Democrat Mark Padget for accepting the endorsements of the three opponents who he defeated in the Mayoral election to seat the one-on-one contest with Rogero. Taking the endorsements of his opponents Ivan Harmon, Joe Hultquist, and Bo Bennett, along with Knox County Sheriff J.J. Jones apparently makes Padgett a "child of courthouse politics," according to Rogero. Who wants to bet that if any of those people had held a news conference with Madeleine Rogero to announce an endorsement, she would be lauding their "incredible record of public service" to the people of Knoxville?
Rogero is, of course, not familiar at all with being a political insider or a part of the gang at the Knox City-County Building at all, is she? A former County Commissioner and opponent of Bill Haslam, the latter appointed her to run his Community Development Department while he was Mayor, so Rogero claiming that Padget is some kind of courthouse insider while she is the fresh face of East Tennessee political life may be the joke of the century. The reality is that Harmon, Hultquist, Bennett and Sheriff Jones are doing precisely what we suggested they would have to do in order to insure that Rogero could be beaten-put aside their own partisan differences and line up behind Padgett to save the City of Knoxville from having a Marxist elected as Mayor.
Rogero's reaction to the Padgett endorsements leaves one to wonder what will come next from her campaign. Will she accuse Mark Padgett-a well-known Democrat who actively worked in Knox County as a disciple of Harold Ford, Jr.-of being a right-wing Tea Party sympathizer? Child of courthouse politics indeed. Are we supposed to believe that Rogero fell out of Woodstock and into running for Mayor of Knoxville?
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