I do my best to always vote. I particularly feel that local elections are important and each of us can make a big difference if we support strong local leadership.

This year I was eager to vote, despite only one state and no local elections.  Marsha Blackburn is my congresswoman. I called her before the bailout bill vote. Please do not vote for the bailout. She did not. I was thrilled. I mailed her campaign a check and called again. Please do not vote for the bailout on the second vote. Sure enough, she voted against the bailout.

I headed to the gym early on Tuesday before the polls were open. Sweats and all, I headed back to the Hickory Valley City Hall where my neighbors volunteer long days to make sure we can vote. I voted for Marsha. I was far from the only one. Despite a Democratic sweep, Blackburn, a Republican, returned to office with a reported 67% of the votes.

According to the IRS tax stats, Tennessee citizens filed 2.7 million returns in 2006 on adjusted gross income of $134 billion, including salaries and wages of $96 billion. We had a total federal tax liability of $17.5 billion. So you can imagine how we feel about the federal government gifting billions of dollars to the top banks on Wall Street so they could pay out $70 billion in bonuses this year.

Keep up the good work, Representative Blackburn.