&8220;Once the toothpaste is out of the tube, it is awfully hard to get it back in.&8221;

&045; H.R. Haldeman

If you take time to look around, you can see the season is changing. Not just the beauty of the fall season in our county or the excitement that comes with football season this time of year. Not even the holiday season that seems to come earlier and earlier each year.

No, the season I am referring to is the 2006 election season.

Despite being just two days shy of one full year from the 2006 general election, the winds of politics are beginning to blow.

An official visit from two candidates for governor within the past seven days is proof enough we are well into our next election cycle.

Gov. Bob Riley spoke at the Shelby County Veterans Day ceremony this past Sunday and Lt. Gov. Lucy Baxley spoke at the South Shelby Chamber of Commerce’s membership luncheon Thursday. Both are candidates for governor in 2006.

Recent polls suggest that Riley, a republican, and Baxley, a democrat, are the odds on favorites to be their party’s nominee, setting up a sizeable match-up between two experienced politicians interested in serving the state from the same office.

But there is lots of time and there will be plenty of polls before any frontrunners can be considered shoe-ins. This is, after all, Alabama politics.

Local voters will cast their ballots in several other races next year promising plenty of political fodder between now and Nov. 7, 2006.

One thing for which we can be proud, many highly qualified and sincere Alabamians will throw their hats into the ring this season; each fully knowing that politics in Alabama can be a rough sport.

They will do so not for the glory of an office, but because they have an interest in making our community and state an even better place to call home.

Being eternally optimistic, we can hope this election cycle is a clean one; one in which issues are discussed and upon which positions are expounded.

If you find yourself sitting on Santa’s knee this Christmas season, please add this to your wish list