So, with the entire nation watching, Nashville has to pick the next mayor to guide the city over the next political tenure. Matters in this regard are made both simple and complex at the same time by virtue of the fact that the incumbent will not be coming into play here. The denizens of Nashville will essentially be treated to a free-for-all brawl come election day.

With that established, answering the question of who should fill the vacuum that Cooper will be leaving behind becomes imperative. Of course, contestants abound when it comes to who will fill the spot. After all, the office of the mayor of Nashville, Tennessee is a highly coveted one.

But while quite a large number of people may want the office, only one person can actually be elected to that position. More specifically, not everyone deserves the opportunity to sit at the helm of affairs in that capacity and Heidi Campbell is a classic example of one such individual.

To be clear, I’m sure that she’s probably a nice person and all of that. But, remember that whoever becomes mayor of the city has a direct bearing on the immediate and long-term future of the region. With this in mind, nothing must be spared in the process of critically evaluating each individual who has thrown their hat in the ring.

So, what exactly might be wrong with #Campbell as mayor?

After all, she’s from the city, has extensive experience when it comes to political affairs, and, from her words, appears heavily invested in the success of Nashville.

While I could just come right out and say it, it may be better for me to simply present the facts and let you come to whatever inference that you deem appropriate.

As anyone who is familiar with her political history will be able to verify, Campbell has served as the mayor of Oak Hill for six years (2014 to 2020). In the same year that she left the office of mayor, she contested and won the seat of state senator, defeating two-term incumbent, Steven Dickerson to do so.

Campbell’s tenure wasn’t yet up when in 2022, she decided to enter the bid for the seat of rep in Tennessee’s 5th congressional district upon the retirement of Jim Cooper, the incumbent. Existing laws do not require that she forfeit her state senate seat to run for Congress so it must be stressed that (at least technically) she wasn’t breaking any rules here.

And now, she has also declared her intentions to fill the position that John Cooper will soon be vacating.

Anyone who doesn’t immediately see what is wrong with the above narrative is either too innocent for this world or just doesn’t care enough about having a truly functional society.

Because, at some point, any sane individual just has to ask; is it that Campbell genuinely loves serving the people that much, or is it that she just can’t stand being without power? At this juncture, it’s clear that it has to be either one option or the other.

And, I might be a jaded individual, but the evidence suggests that it’ll more likely be the latter instead of the former.

It is sad that America just seems to breed people with this type of character by the dozens. Realistically speaking, at some point, there just has to be a legal restriction on how many offices a person should be allowed to contest for. Because the fact is that it’s because of people like her that term limits exist. Yet, people like her have also mastered the art of making a mockery of those same limits.

After all, the only thing that they have to do is shift their focus to another office and those term limits become meaningless.

What makes all of this worse for me is the fact that things would’ve been a little better if it were that she exhibited any measure of competence in the offices she’s held so far.

Let’s look at Oak Hill for example.

As at the time she assumed office as mayor of the county, crime rates were quite low. By the time she was leaving the position in 2020, incidents of violent crime and property crime had increased exponentially. In the same stretch of time, she also laid the groundwork that would eventually ensure that the median property value in the county is more than three times that of the national average currently.

These two issues are of particular concern because Nashville has a crime problem and a homelessness problem. So, we need someone who will make the situation better, not empirically worse.

Campbell is factually more likely to wreck Nashville worse than she met it.

As far as mayoral candidates go, the simple truth is that she’s best given a wide berth!