= new reply since forum marked as read
Shortey, whose seat was up in this special election, was a Republican forced to resign due to child prostitution.
Yay for a (D) gaining that seat in the OK State Senate. 
It all boils down to politics at the local level.
If you are not involved in your local area's politics, what are you waiting for? Get out there and volunteer.
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We usually think of sheep more as followers than leaders, but in a flock one sheep must lead the way. Long ago, it was common practice for shepherds to hang a bell around the neck of one sheep in their flock, thereby designating it the lead sheep. This animal was called the bellwether, a word formed by a combination of the Middle English words belle (meaning "bell"
and wether (a noun that refers to a male sheep that has been castrated). It eventually followed that bellwether would come to refer to someone who takes initiative or who actively establishes a trend that is taken up by others. This usage first appeared in English in the 13th century.
https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/bellwether
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On NPR. So that refreshed my memory. Otherwise, I probably would have spelled "wether" as "whether."
