Full disclosure: when those comments have been about Barack Obama, I've often agreed with them. There is an unbroken chain of corruption in the Chicago Democratic machine going back at least to the Capone gang in the 1920's. This machine brought the deceased to the polls for JFK in 1960, and lately helped launch Obama's career.
However, there's an elephant in the room - pun intended - when local Republicans focus on the foibles and malfeasance of the Democratic party.
Actually, a couple of elephants. And maybe a snake or two.
First Elephant
There's no corruption in the Taney County Democratic Party.
Since there's no organized Taney County Democratic Party. There isn't one Democrat on the November ballot for any county office.
The few Democrats who have held office in this county have been honorable people, and have served competently and honestly.
Second Elephant
There is a history of corruption in the Taney County Republican Party. And the biggest scandal that I remember, was brought to light by...
.... A Democrat!
Back in the mid 1990's, the Treasurer of Taney County resigned. The Governor fills such vacancies by appointment, and our governor at the time was a Democrat. Governor Carnahan appointed John Willett, a young man in his early twenties - and a Democrat.
In those days I had a couple of lively conversations with John at the county fair. We disagreed vigorously, but John was respectful at all times - never insulted my person. When I'd see him in town, he'd encourage me to drop by his office sometime for a visit. I very much regret never having done so.
Later, I learned that John was working high up in one of the twin towers in New York on September 11, 2001. We lost a fine citizen from Taney County that day.
During John's tenure as Treasurer, he came upon a number of checks payable to then County Clerk Ron Houseman and then County Collector Dwain Basham.
Seems these two officials were collecting "commissions" from tax revenues that they were collecting on behalf of municipalities around the county. Checks amounting to hundreds of thousands of dollars. One check to Ron Houseman was for over $80,000 - yes that's right an eighty thousand dollar bonus. His regular salary was a little over $42,000 at the time.
Charges were dropped on technicalities. Either the law was insufficient, or these handsomely rewarded public servants were well connected.
But they did lose their bids for reelection in 1998. And since then, those elected to the offices of Clerk and Collector have not enriched themselves with lucrative commissions.
Things have changed in Taney County since then - or have they?
Despite being involved in this monumental scandal, Ron Houseman was hired by the county in 2009 to help obtain Obama stimulus funds for the county. The decision to hire him was made by the County Commission on a 2 to 1 vote. The two who voted for the hire were Western Commissioner Jim Strafuss and Eastern Commissioner Danny Strahan.
Oh, and I'm running against Danny Strahan
IMPORTANT DISCLOSURE: The author of this blog is running against the aforementioned Danny Strahan for the position of Eastern Taney County Commissioner.
This is negative campaigning, which brings another IMPORTANT DISCLOSURE: I'm not opposed to negative campaigning IF it is factual and relevant. I very much oppose negative campaigning that is misleading ("my opponent publicly masticates in restaurants") , irrelevant ("my opponent wears a toupee"), or merciless ("my opponent was a Communist when he was 20, but grew out of it").
This is an issue: Danny Strahan voted to hire Ron Houseman, despite his record of appropriating exhorbitant amounts of public funds for himself.
I would have voted NO on this hire.
What's the difference between the Democrat machine in Chicago and the GOP machine in Taney County?
Scale.
Chicago is much bigger.
Certain prominent Republicans in Taney County have sought to intimidate other Republicans for daring to support an Independent candidate. Back in August, Taney County GOP Chairman Buddy Roberts went to the County Clerk's office to review my nominating petitions (I'm an Independent candidate for the County Commission). At the next GOP luncheon, Republicans whose signatures were found were chastised.
However, there is a double standard in place: Mr. Roberts subsequently contacted the County Clerk on behalf of Jim Strafuss - outgoing Western Commissioner who failed in a bid for the State Senate - in order to find out how Jim could run as a write-in candidate against REPUBLICAN Jeff Justus, who won the August primary to be the GOP nominee for State Representative, 156th District.
Apparently, Mr. Roberts was recently pressured by other members of the Central Committee - to their credit - to be consistent and affirm that if a good Republican can't support an Independent running against a Republican, then a good Republican shouldn't support a write-in running against a Republican, either.
While it is good that Republican officials in Taney County seek to apply a uniform standard, it'd really be nice if they took a glance at the Constitution - which they've taken an oath to support - and learned that there's no restriction in this country on supporting the candidate of your choice, even if you belong to a political party.
