In less than a week, we will be covering the election results and know who the next President of the United States is. And then perhaps, life will resume some semblance of normalcy.

Right now local news seems to pale in comparison to the latest election polls, candidate news, negative campaign ads generated by both sides of the political spectrum and uneasy news coming from Wall Street and the White House.

I’ll just betcha (hey, I used that term before Sarah ever made it a household word) local candidates are holding their breath and turning blue.

You can probably count on the voters going for whoever is the party of choice on their ballot. While some will vote a mixed ballot, I think most will follow party lines. That doesn’t bode well for those candidates on the wrong side of whichever party leads in Fort Bend County this election year.

While traditionally Fort Bend County has been almost exclusively Republican, such might not be the case this year. I know several high-ranking political figures who have expressed relief that they are not on the ballot this year.

So obviously they are thinking the pendulum is swinging to the left.

It is kind of neat for reporters who covered this beat back in the olden days of Democrat rule to get to witness that pendulum swinging. I can distinctly remember when the late Judge Lee Eguia ran for Justice of the Peace, Precinct 3, as a Republican.

My goodness, you would have thought that Lee, who did get elected as the first Republican in a gazillion years, was the devil himself.

Politicians, being quite astute at times, figured the writing was on the wall and one by one they changed allegiance, going from staunch Democrats to kind of luke warm Republicans.

Through the years those quasi-Republicans were replaced by the real deal and Fort Bend County changed drastically.

They say everything that goes around, comes around.

It will be interesting to see who is left standing and if we see a new breed of quasi-Democrats emerge from the mix or if the Republican strong-hold manages to scrape by despite the national trends we are now seeing.

Regardless of which candidate you support, everyone has to admit this is a very challenging time in American history. I have a feeling this is one year that will actually be noted in our grandchildren’s history text books.