I am Brent D. Bush, your conservative Republican candidate for the office of Cannon County Executive. I am retired from the US Army and currently serve as a commissioner for the 4th District of Cannon County. I am asking for your vote in the May 1st Republican Primary and the August 2nd General Election. For the last 4 years I have worked to improve Cannon County Government's service to its citizens through the adoption of policies to make county government operate more like a business. I have served on multiple committees and tackled many issues concerning the budget, insurance, and solid waste. I don't believe we can continue increasing our property taxes, increasing our borrowing (approx. 1.126 Million dollars) from Educational Debt Service, and be a financially solvent county government in the future. This is the trend I want to change as your County Executive.

I believe in transparency and open government. An informed citizenry is critical to the success of representative government. It is important that citizens are afforded the opportunity to provide input, are heard, and respected by the government that serves them. If elected, I will hold open Town Hall type meetings in a work shop format to identify issues, engage the citizens, and find solutions; augmenting our current monthly commission meetings. A functioning government must work hard, recognize and accept facts, and be responsible to the public and their needs. We must have the ability to discuss matters openly and based on facts. Crisis management cannot be the normal way government functions. The County Commission can't be forced to make decisions for office holders on the day to day operations of County business. Currently, the Executive and constitutional office holders are responsible for their own operations in decentralized government. As Executive, I will ensure that the Commissioner's will have the ability to review multiple bids on contracts, with a variety of service providers, and those will be available for viewing on a functional public website that is managed with office holder input and routinely updated with the most current information. My plan over the next 4 years is to improve our personnel management capabilities, use available technology to improve our services, and gain control of asset visibility of all our county owned property. I want to use my experience in organizational leadership, to improve our County's financial position, and I need your help to make Cannon County a great place to live and work.

On a personal note, I was born in Woodbury in 1962, graduated from Cannon County High School in 1981, earned a BS in History at MTSU in 1987, MS in Management at Florida Tech in 1999, and graduated from Command and General Staff College in 2001. I am married to Lydia (Gentry), and we have three grown married children, Jessica (Mike Mowl), Zak (Kendall Hooper), and Nathan (Danielle McHugh) and are blessed with three grandchildren Kaden, Landen, and Sophia. I am the son of Dale and Mary Lynn (Foster) Bush and my wife's parents are Boyd and the late Helon (Milligan) Gentry.