The word I'm hearing through the local grapevine is that District Clerk Charles Bacarisse will resign his position as soon as this Friday to make formal his run for the GOP nomination for County Judge next year. Now, we all know that not every rumor you hear on the Intertubes will turn out to be true, so don't go running off to your bookie to bet on this just yet. After all, Bacarisse has already been asked about this rumor and has denied it. But hey, who are you going to believe, the man himself or some guy with a website? Obviously, the latter is way more fun. And for what it's worth, the rumor is persisting beyond his denial anyway. So make of that what you will.

Now, what everybody and his brother does know is that Bacarisse wants to be County Judge, and that he and his friends have been gearing up for the campaign. He's taken steps to prepare financially for the run. He's got to resign sooner or later if he's going to do this at all, since he can't raise money till he resigns, and he's starting out well behind Ed Emmett in that department. So if he's still the District Clerk at the close of business this Friday, then just scratch out that date in the rumor and add in a new one. The date may not be certain, but unless he's overestimated his support within the GOP, the fact of Bacarisse's resignation is. As certain as anything can ever be in politics, anyway.

And when Bacarisse does resign, we'll have situation similar to that of the County Judge when Robert Eckels took a powder, which is to say that a replacement will be selected (in this case by the district court judges), and there will be an election to fill the remainder of his four-year term next November. I do know that Democrat Loren Jackson, who had been prepping for a run for the Justice of the Peace seat that was left open by Betty Brock Bell's resignation in District 7 before Hilary Green was appointed to fill it, has set his sights on the District Clerk's office instead. I'm also pretty sure that there will be some jockeying on the GOP side for the right to be selected as Bacarisse's replacement, and that there will be a contested primary in that slot as well. All of which means that 2008 just keeps on getting more and more interesting. Stay tuned.