Filing Ends for Braddock Mayoral Race

Braddock, TX -- The 2008 Braddock Mayor's race is just getting started. Filing ended Friday afternoon at 5 PM, and the Braddock Board of Elections has released the official slate of candidates who will be on the ballot for the primary elections next spring.

Henry Wise, the very popular 4-term incumbent mayor will be tough to beat. But several candidates have already lined up to try to do just that. Braddock has no term limits, so Wise, a Republican who has won each of the last four electiosn in a landslide, is eligible to run again. He is expected to easily take both his party's nomination and the mayoral seat once again.

Wilson's lone challenger in the Republican primary is Jacqueline Thehut, a newcomer to politics who decided to run to protest the city's "assault on homeowners," as she puts it. Thehut will oppose imminent domain and the city's right to condemn run-down buildings. She also opposes abortion and wants the city to fund a program to raise awareness about the dangers of stroke. Her campaign will be run by her husband. Both are librarians at BCPL and former WNWA wrestlers.

Things are more complicated on the Democratic side, where the party's primary is expected to be a free-for-all. Perennial candidate for mayor and city council, Truman Marlin - a local barber, gym owner, wrestling coach, and community activist - is running once again for the highest office in Braddock. Marlin plans to run on his usual platform: taking back the streets, cleaning up Braddock's poorer neighborhoods, increasing government services for the poor, arresting illegal aliens, making abortion illegal, strengthening the border with Mexico, and ending racism against African Americans. Marlin is expected to sweep the African American vote, as he has in past elections. He has campaigning experience on his side, but has never actually won an election. Marlin's campaign manager is his good friend and Braddock County Commissioner T. Diana Belle-Little.

A wrestler and new resident of Braddock, John Perry (who wrestles in the WNWA as T.M.I.) is also running in the Democrat Party's primary. Not much is known about Perry who recently moved to Braddock and will just barely meet the residency requirements come election day. He claims to have been a State Senator from his home state of Pennsylvania. Like Truman Marlin, Perry also served as a veteran of the Vietnam War. He plans to run on an anti-Iraq War platform. His campaign manager will be Joseph Paul Paynter, local wrestler, librarian, and entrepreneur. Paynter wrestles in the WNWA as The Liberal Librarian and is a controversial figure in the Braddock Democratic Party. Paynter was originally planning to enter the mayor's race himself until pending drug charges and a personal request from Hillary Clinton caused him to withdraw his candidacy. He has instead thrown his support behind Perry, explaining that the newcomer is a "close friend, regular customer at my cafe, and holds the same values as I do, brother. Also I want to see Truman Marlin's ass get kicked, dude. T.M.I. and I will band together to show Braddock what liberal values are all about, brother. I can't think of a guy I'd rather be behind, dude."

A third Democrat on the ticket is Karma McCarthy, local hippie artist, pro-immigration activist, female wrestler, and librarian. Her campaign may be a long-shot, as she doesn't have much funding. She has employed boyfriend Letravis Gorman as her campaign manager, and is expected to challenge Perry for the Hispanic vote. She plans to run on a platform favoring amnesty for illegal aliens, giving Texas back to Mexico, and ending the Iraq War by making peace with the terrorists - all controverial issues in Braddock.

For the first time ever, Braddock has a mayoral candidate from the American Communist Party. Carl Borden Reubens (who wrestles in the WNWA as Yeti) is the sole Communist candidate, so he automatically wins his party's primary and will be on the November ballot against the winners from the Democrat and Republican parties. Democrats worry that Reubens' third-party candidacy may split their already slim voting bloc in Braddock. Reubens plans to run on several issues, including: organizing all labor in Braddock, ending the Iraq War, finding alternative sources of energy, charging extremely high taxes on all petroleum products to discourage their consumption, ending hunting and fishing, and raising taxes in order to turn all healthcare in Braddock over to the local government. His campaign will be managed by Braddock Communist Party Chairperson, Gail Donnelly.

Look for debates throughout the fall and spring, as the candidates prepare for the primary elections.