The circus is coming to a voting booth near you!

This year's local election is shaping up to be a real whopper, with two races in particular drawing gasps of disbelief, relief and "holy moleys."
Those races are the county commission Dist. 5 race and the race for sheriff.
In the Dist. 5 race, current commissioner Cindy Meadows is stepping down. We hate to see her vacate her position, as she has been a good commissioner for South Walton. She researches the issues, returns calls and stays in touch with her constituency. Unfortunately, many times she is left out in the cold by the other commissioners, who - shall we say it? - are all from north of the bay.
Running for her seat is a collection of candidates that could not be more diverse than if you hand picked them.
These are the ones that have pre-filed but did not necessarily qualify by the deadline which was noon on Friday.
• Gregory Charles "Charlie" Burke - Burke was convicted of voter fraud on June for his tenure on the South Walton County Mosquito Control Board. The court said he did not maintain a permanent residence at the address he had listed when qualifying. As of June 18, he listed that same address as his residence for his candidacy for commissioner.
• Robert "Bob" Hudson - a hardnosed member of the Walton County Taxpayers' Association offers several attractive ideas at his Web page (www.bobhudson-2008.com/index.html) but no mention of any plans as to how to achieve his ideas. He is a true "by-the-book" kind of guy. One of the truly amazing things is that it is reported but unconfirmed that he has attended 80 percent of all the BCC meetings in the last two years.
• Cecilia Jones - Jones is a long-time educator and administrator in the Walton County School District. She is married to former school board member Jerry Jones, which in our opinion, would be her biggest liability. Jones has been active in a number of organizations and is no stranger to the political scene.
• Sidney Braunstien - Sid is a good guy, and smart, too. He has been a volunteer at almost every organization at one time or another. We believe he would bring a calm, reasoned voice to the BCC in addition to a wealth of business experience.
• George Wallace Smith - Who?
• And Alan Osborne. Alan has been the throbbing thorn in the BCC's side for several years now. In his effort to make right what he believes is wrong, he has spent hundreds of hours and thousands of dollars researching the actions of the BCC. No one, including the Planning Commission, knows certain parts of the Land Development Code and the Comprehensive Plan as well as Osborne. If elected, Osborne would certainly enliven the procedures as it is his belief government should be held accountable for its actions. Right is right and everything else is just wrong and Osborne ain't afraid to call anyone out when he thinks they're wrong.
We're saving the sheriff's race for another day because that's really where it comes down to a "Who is on third," comedy routine.
Yep, this year's race reminds us of the scene in the movie "Animal House," where the fat frat boy keeps saying, "Oh boy, oh boy, oh boy. Is this going to be fun!"
Yeah, Flounder, it is.