Greetings, Friends.

How did we get past the middle of August so quickly? Well, here we are and the way it feels to me seems like November 3, Election Day, might as well be tomorrow.

These past two weeks have seen some spice get sprinkled on the Fiscal Court and Berea races and we might yet see still more shake-ups in our roster of elected officials.

Madison County

First, there was the announcement from cattle farmer Nick Marcum—who spoke passionately about the rapid loss of farmland in our county at a recent Fiscal Court meeting where 1,200 acres were flipped from agriculture to residential and industrial—that he's running a write-in candidacy for Brian Combs's Dist. 1 magistrate seat.

Combs is big on property rights and citing the Constitution's protection therein. Y'know, I get that, but I also have started to think that that has become a catch-all across the Commonwealth—not just in Madison County—for leaders who are loathe to say, "I don't have any creative ideas for how to deal with he pressure we're under thanks to data center development" and other land-use challenges we're facing.

I am working out how I really think about that, and so far, I don't have the data to argue one way or the other, but that is my premise. I do think that there is some middle ground that is Constitutional, but also less reflexively in favor of development. I don't know what that looks like in practice yet, but I think we could start with our property tax code.

In any case, Combs hasn't expressed any doubts publicly about any of the zoning changes he's been asked to vote on since he was elected.

Combs and Marcum were seen by a reporter having what looked to be a friendly chat at the re-election campaign kick-off event for Berea Mayor Bruce Fraley on Thursday. In May, Combs just squeaked back into his Dist. 1 magistrate seat by 17 votes, with candidate Terry Napier right on his heels. Which means, if Marcum can rally those same voters +18 in November, the Fiscal Court will have just one incumbent on it—Billy Ray Hughes (Dist. 3).

As we'll discuss, Richmond's Commission race might be the messiest of all three, but in Berea, we have something interesting shaping up—two good men about to duke it out, figuratively speaking. Who will win the most hearts and minds of Bereans?

Berea

I'm surprised when I say it out loud, but it's been nearly 40 years now since I started professionally tracking the careers of powerful people across all levels of government and industry, which when you boil it down, is really the meat of what policy-focused journalism is all about.

My observation is that politicians and high-ranking leaders generally fall into one of two categories: narcissists whose greed runs the spectrum, and those who are called to serve, no greed at all. What happens to these two groups once they get into power is a whole other study.

But as types go, I've seen only two. As another journalist put it to me on the campaign trail this week when I shared my observation with him: President Nixon said of those in Washington that there were those who wanted to be somebody, and those who wanted to do something. Yes.