February 13, 2008

A Long, Long Time Ago...

State Rep. Frank Buck, D-Dowelltown, is retiring after 18 terms in the state legislature - which means that, for the first time since 1972, the year Buck was elected, the voters in the 40th House District won't have an incumbent on the ballot.

The last time Buck wasn't on the ballot was the year 1970, the year that Paul McCartney announced the Beatles had disbanded. Also that year, the Kansas City Chiefs won Super Bowl 4, President Richard Nixon sent the troops into Cambodia, four students were shot at an anti-Vietnam War protest at Kent State, the Ford Pinto made its debut, as did Garry Trudeau's comic strip Doonesbury, the first Earth Day was celebrated, the ill-fated Apollo 13 lunar mission was launched, and construction workers topped out the North Tower of the World Trade Center at 1,368 feet, making it the tallest building in the world.

I was six.

The 40th House District includes Macon, Smith and DeKalb counties. In 2006, Buck survived a strong challenge from Republican Terri Lynn Weaver. She got 42 percent of the vote. Buck got 58 percent, but his vote total of 9,650 was 2,424 votes fewer than fellow Democrat Phil Bredesen got in the district en route to being re-elected with 70 percent of the vote statewide. House District 40 is a definite pick-up opportunity for Republicans, who are just four seats shy of taking a majority in the state House. Weaver plans to run again.

Longtime readers of my blog know I've had nice things to say about Rep. Buck in the past. A conservate Democrat, Buck was, by far, one of the best Democrats in the state House. He opposed the income tax when Democrat House Speaker Jimmy Naifeh pushed it to a vote in 2002, but Buck made his biggest impact with his career-long focus on legislative ethics. Buck was championing ethics reform long before the Tennessee Waltz investigation forced the Bredesen administration and the House Democrat leadership to focus on it too.

I wish Rep. Buck only the best in his retirement from the legislature.