Battling through seemingly endless whining, hollow statements, and hurt feelings at yesterday’s DeKalb County Commission meeting, the commission somehow managed to elect a new presiding officer: Commissioner Kathie Gannon.

As I reported just before the holidays, this presiding officer election has been tied to rumors that Vernon Jones may pull out of the Senate race against Chambliss and instead run against Hank Johnson for Congress. Why? Because “insiders” claimed that Johnson was working with lone Republican on the commission, Elaine Boyer, to get Gannon elected, and that this was seen as an effort to increase Republican influence in DeKalb (even though Gannon is a Democrat).

Well regardless of whether you buy Vernon’s strategists’ argument that Johnson is a secret Republican operative, it seems that Boyer did end up siding with Gannon, but only after informing the commission’s other nominee, Larry Johnson, that she wasn’t voting for him because he never asked her.

So, in the end there’s no vast right-wing conspiracy…its just that Elaine is a stickler for good manners.

“In just two days, and with virtually no advertising or even any signs, a staggering 7,500 people filled out applications for one of the 350 to 400 available jobs [at a new Wal-Mart on Memorial Drive in central DeKalb County].” (Read the full AJC article here)

Though I’m often first point out the destructive nature of the big box on the local economy and local character, you can’t ignore a turnout like this.