The Forgotten Ones
Republicans as qualified for register of deeds
Ounce for ounce, pound for pound, the Republicans in the register of deeds race are every bit as qualified as the Democrats. Here’s some background on the GOP candidates. (The Democrats will be profiled in an upcoming story.)
Roger Abramson—A 27-year-old attorney and research analyst for the state House Republican Caucus, Abramson, like all the other candidates, says he’s interested in computerizing the register of deeds office. He also says Boner’s candidacy inspired him.
“I work about 25 feet from Bill Boner’s office, and the fact that he could win made me shudder,” he says.
Abramson, who has never run for political office before, is a Nashville native who graduated from the University of Evansville and later earned a law degree from Wake Forest University.
Elisabeth Cothren—A political newcomer, Cothren, 56, is a Nashville native and a Realtor with Crye-Leike Realtors. She holds a human resources management degree from Trevecca Nazarene University. Cothren says the register of deeds office shouldn’t be political, adding that she hopes “[Wilson] is the last of the good ol’ boys in that office.”
Marbut Glenn Gaston Jr.—Gaston, 52, is an attorney and a real-estate broker, as well as a principal in a development and construction company. Describing the register of deeds office as “one of the few offices that produces revenues for Metro,” he says the job is not well understood by the public at large. “The importance of this office is only exceeded by the public’s lack of understanding of it,” he adds. Gaston holds a law degree from Vanderbilt University and an MBA from Emory University. He has never run for political office before.
Jim Kent—Kent, 58, says that, if elected, he would give $17,000 of the $84,000 register of deeds salary to the homeless. A real-estate agent who ran as a Democrat for the job in 1990, Kent echoes the message of most other GOP candidates, who say the job shouldn’t necessarily be an elected position. Instead, he advocates merging the office with the Metro tax assessor’s office. Nevertheless, Kent urges people to vote for him because “you can’t do anything like this from the outside.”
Paul Koulakov—Koulakov, 41, a certified public accountant, is a former two-term member of Metro Council who teaches at Tennessee State University. Koulakov notes that he is the only CPA running for the position and that he also holds both an MBA and a real-estate license. “I’ve always felt that if there’s a position I was well suited for, this was it,” he says.
Pat Sanderson—Sanderson, 51, is an assistant real-estate broker at Forest Hills Realtors. A certified records manager with an associate degree in business management, she worked for about 10 years as corporate records manager for Service Merchandise. “I’m not really politically motivated,” says Sanderson, who lost a Metro Council race several years ago. “I look at this as a position—an extension of my career—rather than a political office.”
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