Cunningham calls Commission Democrats 'monkeys'

By Mark Boxley
of The Daily Times Staff

A Republican gathering held at Heritage High School, and attended by about 350 people, got a little heated Friday night as Blount County Mayor Jerry Cunningham used his introduction of Blount County General Sessions Judge David R. Duggan to lambast a trio of Democratic County Commissioners.

Cunningham took the podium to introduce the sitting General Sessions judge -- in a line of introductions that ended with remarks from U.S. Sen. Lamar Alexander -- and quickly poked fun at current events in the county.

"The water in front of you tonight has fluoride in it, compliments of the mayor's office," he said to the crowd, drawing laughter and applause.

Cunningham then moved to recognize a large number of appointed and elected officials in the audience, who were there for the Blount County Republican

Lincoln Day dinner.

When he was done, Cunningham turned his attention, and ire, to three Democrats on the Blount County Commission.

"The political complexion of Blount County has changed drastically over the past 10 years, probably," Cunningham said. "For many years, the Democratic Party opposed us on almost everything, but they came at us heads-on, they were a more conservative Democratic Party."

The new, less conservative Democrats in Blount County are -- he said, taking a line from FoxNews' Bill O'Reilly -- "far-left loons."

"They've landed here in Blount County, let me tell you," he said. "If you don't believe me, come to one of my County Commission meetings and you watch them perform.

"And it's frightening to me," he continued. "Because most of them moved in here from somewhere else.

"And that's wonderful -- we've got a lot of wonderful people coming in here helping us do the good things ... and doing the right kinds of things for Blount County," he said. "But we have some of these far-lefters coming in here, and they hit the county line coming into Blount County criticizing everything that moves."

Cunningham said in the last election, the far-lefters "they sneaked up on us a little bit."

"We've got three on the County Commission and I mean, it is a disaster," he said.

Cunningham continued, talking about a night when he was upset with the three Democratic commission members -- who he never named -- and a conversation he had about them.

"It was one of those nights that I was mad at those three on the commission, and I had a committee meeting and all three of there were on it," he said. "And I said, 'Well, I'll go to the bottom of the hill and I can turn right and go to the Knoxville Zoo, or I can turn left and go to that committee meeting.

"And I can see the monkeys at the zoo or I can see them at the committee meeting," he said to a room full of laughter. "This next election ... do us a favor and turn those three Democrats out to pasture, for God's sake."

Cunningham then started talking about Duggan and his opponent in the upcoming Blount County Circuit Judge race. Duggan had "worked in the trenches," Cunningham said. "There's no doubt about his credentials."

Duggan's opponent, on the other hand, apparently did not, in Cunningham's opinion.

"I think you can judge the man that (Duggan's) running against by his handlers, and his handlers are those three darned commissioners that I've been talking about," Cunningham said. "You know, when you wallow with the hogs, you're going to get a little mud on you.

"And I am just fed up with them, I don't know any nice way to put it," he added. "And I look and I see them trying to put another one of their kind in as my circuit judge, as our circuit judge, and I find that reprehensible.

"I would have supported David Duggan if he had not been running against Mike Meares, but knowing the political philosophies, and the people that his opponent surrounds himself with day to day, just makes me want to work even harder."

After Cunningham, and then Duggan, took the podium, U.S. Representative Jimmy Duncan spoke Friday before Alexander took the stage as the key-note speaker.