The last-minute flood of candidates for various local, state and federal offices in the July primary caught me off guard. It virtually guarantees more runoffs than I had expected, and several candidates will get embarrassingly low total votes.
It also could affect several top-rung higher offices as the lesser candidates' neighbors and extended families may vote for them instead of whichever of the top candidates they had favored.
True, they could then vote for their favorite top candidate in a runoff, but their first votes for the others might be the votes that keep favorite top candidate out of a runoff.
The letter to the editor from a resigned county campaign chairman in the Dawson County News is going to have a negative effect in today's congressional election. How big is the key. If you haven't voted yet as you read this and you have time to get to your polling place by 7 p.m., you still can do your civic duty. Go vote!
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Unless the Publishers Clearinghouse team knocks announcing I won their sweepstakes, it's highly unlikely I'll ever be a millionaire. Nonetheless, it is interesting (sometimes) to read not how self-made millionaires made it, but shared characteristics. Let me cite a few:
Housing: Three times more self-made millionaires own homes valued at less than $300,000 than those whose homes are $1 million and upward. Expensive homes usually are surrounded by other expensive homes owned by people who buy expensive things creating social pressure to fit in. Rather, self-made millionaires locate in neighborhoods where they're quietly more successful than neighbors, minimizing pressure to spend.
Cars: Statistics showed 11 percent of millionaires owned Toyotas, the most popular brand among them. Ford, Honda and Chevrolet were close.
Conversely, 86 percent of people who buy luxury brands are not millionaires. Luxury brands attract high earners who tend to be status-conscious overspenders, preventing them from accumulating assets that make millionaires.
Toys: About two-thirds of millionaires never owned a second home or a boat. Most of those who have, sell it and never buy another. They don't buy elite brand clothing but shop at places like Kohl's, Penney's, Belk and Target. People who buy elite brands tend to want to look rich. Seiko is the most popular watch choice, not Rolex.
One glaring exception is men's shoes. They're willing to spend up to $300 for comfortable, timeless styling but not flashy name brands. About three-fourths resole them when they wear out.
They excel at converting income into real wealth. Most do so via either carefully selected and managed diversified securities portfolios, finding a unique product or service or investing in unique ideas of other people who lack the necessary capital.
The idea-originators run the businesses; the millionaire keeps tabs and reinvests. Many lead lives so ordinary their friends and neighbors don't even know they are millionaires.
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Good for the Chamber of Commerce's mediator suggestion and offer. It appears it finally may have spurred city and county officials. They needed to get over their piques over water control and do what needs to be done.
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For many years I've tried to warn, at least annually, that state and local governments should keep close tabs on their retirement plans. Large numbers are severely underfunded and are getting worse as the economy does little more than hold its own before even more workers are retiring. It is becoming a disaster in waiting.
Ted Oglesby is retired associate and opinion page editor of The Times. You can reach him at P.O. Box 663, Gainesville, GA 30503. His column appears every other Tuesday and on gainesvilletimes.com.