Tommy and Sherry Purvis are political buffs – not just becauseit’s their bread and butter at election time, but because theybelieve it’s important to the city, county state and country tohave strong leadership.

As such, their business, Select Signs and More, is sponsoring apolitical rally on Saturday at the Brookhaven Recreation Departmentat 3 p.m. The Purvises even chose the venue so people could relaxin the air conditioning and concentrate on the rally.

“It’s my thought that this election is probably one of the mostimportant we’ve had in Lincoln County in several years,” said TommyPurvis. “These people have offered themselves to fill a need in thecommunity, and it’s up to us as voters to make a wise decision whenthe time comes.”

Purvis said 39 candidates had signed up to speak at the rally.Names will be chosen at random from a fishbowl for speakingorder.

“We’ve had 40-plus candidates that have done business with usand we want to show them our appreciation by doing this rally,”Purvis said. “But all candidates are invited, whether they gettheir signs through us or not, and they’ll all have equaltime.”

The rally will start with the Pledge of Allegiance and NationalAnthem and will be followed by a prayer. Then the festivities willbegin.

Music will be provided by local musicians Chad Simmons, WaldoLilly, Chad Moak and Yvonne Davis. Door prizes will be handed outand there will be free hot dogs and drinks to the first 500attendees.

The Purvises said they’d like to see a good turnout for therally because there are so many strong races in the countyelection.

“There are a lot of good ladies and gentlemen running for officethis year,” said Sherry Purvis. “It’s good to see we’ve had so muchinterest in the county races this year.”

Tommy agreed.

“There is a lot more interest in the political races in LincolnCounty than there was four years ago,” he said. “I think that’sbecause people are waking up and saying things have to change.”

As a political enthusiast and a Baptist minister at Mission HillBaptist in Wesson, Purvis has to answer a lot of questions aboutthe overlap of church and state.

“People always ask me if church and politics can go together,”he said.

Sherry said the answer is simple.

“They must,” she said. “It’s our Christian duty to do what isbest for our city, county, state and nation.”

And working with so many people during election time, thePurvises get to hear a lot of different ideas on how things shouldbe run.

“We remain impartial,” Sherry said. “We’ve been given theopportunity to meet and listen to so many of these candidates, andthere are so many good opinions out there.”

But sometimes it can be anywhere from downright funny to alittle testy.

“It’s the most interesting when we’ve got two candidates for thesame position in here,” he said with a laugh.