Whenever something remotely newsworthy occurs in Floyd County, you can be sure politicians who had nothing to do with the event jump in and try to claim credit.

We saw this happen this week when the county announced the deal with Arrow Trucks Sales of the Volvo Group to set up a truck component remanufacturing facility in the Branwick Center.

Gov. Tim Kaine issued a press release “announcing” the deal. Kaine didn’t have a damn thing to do with the deal. The credit goes to the County Board of Supervisors, the Industrial Development Authority and Lydeanna Martin, county director of economic development.

Likewise, Del. Allen Dudley of Rocky Mount, our state representative, made a rare appearance in Floyd County to attend the ceremony. You can count on Dudley to be here when there’s a chance of getting his picture in the paper. I managed to shoot a number of photos and none included him.

As reps go, Dudley is a lightweight. I met a lot like him during my sojourn as a political operative. They do just enough to get by and stay in office but are seldom around when you really need them.

The Arrow Trucks deal came about because of a lot of hard work by our local officials. The claim jumpers were just there in an attempt to share the glory.

Didn’t work. My mama drowned the dumb ones.