Area Goofballs Eye Mayoral Race

Ralph Bristol, a former local right-wing radio yakker, is running for mayor, and Carol Swain, a silly former Vanderbilt professor, is thinking about it. The good news is neither of these people is going to be mayor of Nashville. The bad news is they're probably going to be out and about saying things that you might end up hearing.

Mayor David Briley and At-Large Metro Councilmember Erica Gilmore are already confirmed candidates in the election, which is going to take place ... sometime. The Tennessee Supreme Court will decide whether the proper date for the election is in May or August.

Bristol was a talk-show host with Nashville's conservative talk radio station WWTN until he was fired earlier this year. He regularly played host to right-wing lowlifes like Jeremy Durham and U.S. Rep. Scott DesJarlais, offering them a friendly interview as they faced scandals over their sexual misconduct. He tells The Tennessean he's running because he feels there needs to be at least one candidate in the race who opposes the transit plan that will be on the ballot May 1. Check out his campaign logo:

Meanwhile, the local Breitbart News-esque Tennessee Star enthusiastically announced this morning that Swain was planning to pick up papers today and then decide whether to run. Swain has been an occasional guest of The Tennessean's op-ed page over the years, allowing her a large platform for her anti-Islamic screeds and musings about whether God might be murdering Vanderbilt University students to prove a point.  

Swain has written two pieces for the Star in the past week — one bemoaning the lack of real choices for voters in the upcoming mayoral election, and the other taking up for Fox News host Laura Ingraham in her ongoing battle with the teenage survivors of a school shooting massacre. 

Best of luck to them both. 

Update (6:00 p.m.): Swain makes it official. Troy Brewer, an accountant and former Republican state House candidate who made some headlines for the wrong reasons, will be her campaign treasurer.