NANCY ARCHER’S EMPTY STABLE

Nancy Archer has much more difficult problems than she did in past years when she had to somehow convince voters to re-elect public officials that held public office during a culture of corruption. She has the impossible task of attempting to win horse races with an empty stable.

It seems like an eternity since former Liberty County Republican Party County Chairman Lester Ray Wisegerber bragged that he was talking with Liberty County Democratic Party Chairman Nancy Archer on an almost daily basis. Those must have been hopeful days for the Democratic chairman. In a time when it was all but certain it was the last of the good ole days for Liberty County Democrats, Archer could at least see a glimmer of hope in her Republican counterpart’s naivety and his infamous comments that “it really doesn’t matter whether a person has a “D” or a “R” by their name.

Even four years of dubious leadership by local Republican leadership only slowed down the onslaught of losses local Democrats were destined to experience insure. Now Archer faces what appears to be an insurmountable challenge. Archer not only has very few people willing to run as Democrats, she also has to deal with the uncertainty caused by rumor after rumor of more defections. One can only imagine the conversations she has had with the remaining incumbent Democrats. She has to act like there is no question about their loyalty to the Democratic Party, while she must also try and get a count on what she has left to work with.

Mark McClelland, a close friend of the Archers, retired at the end of the summer. McClelland’s ties to the Archers went beyond the many years of working together in the local Democratic party and included thousands and thousands of dollars’ worth of checks he signed paying Archer to collect delinquent taxes. And perhaps because of those close ties, we may see no better act of allegiance to the dying and defeated local Democrat party than McClelland quitting rather than switching political parties.

So who does that leave for Archer to strut out in front of the public and say as she and her husband once said: “We win elections because we have good candidates and they simply never run anyone worthy of the voter’s consideration.” (Paraphrased)

They have two commissioners, Fontenot and Hunt, who continue to behave like tax and spend Democrats though there have been rumors of different dates in the past that one or the other were going to announce they were going to switch parties. I guess Archer could encourage them to switch parties and if somehow Republicans overlook over a decade of them both enslaving the county with their penchant for bond indebtedness and other behaviors closely linked to Democrat politicians, Archer could claim victory.

Or Archer if she really wants to pull off some magic could present Mike Little as either an old fashion conservative Democrat or she could try and pull sheepskin over him and say he is now a Republican – even though he has been on the top of the “needs to be driven from office” list of many Republican activists for years.

What will Nancy Archer do? Will she have candidates to run in all of the races? How will she talk to incumbents if they want to pull a McClelland and quit rather than face the voters? How will the Archers have a power connection in the courthouse if Mike Little retires? Will Nancy Archer sign up to run for another term as chairman?

Answers to all of these questions will be forthcoming sooner than in the past because the sign up period has been moved up to between November 16th and December 16th. Nancy Archer has the worst win-loss record of any Democratic Party chairman in the last 100 years. Her husband John has the second worst.