THE SPECTATOR: COUNTY JUDGE’S RACE TURNS UGLY
The race for the next Washington County Judge has turned ugly….again! Not only have organizations outside Washington County been sending distasteful text messages attacking one of the candidates, but his opponent has also been bombarding voters with mailers filled with lies and personal attacks. You would think that someone with more than twenty years of experience as a County Commissioner would be confident on just running on his record and his accomplishments while in office. Unfortunately, Kirk Hanath chose to hire an Austin campaign consultant to lead these attacks on his opponent, Brad Tegeler. In my experience, Washington County voters do not like this type of campaign. It failed for one candidate in the Primary Election, and it failed in last year’s School Board elections. Lies and innuendos just don’t fly in our local elections where most people personally know the candidates. Kirk is a friend of mine, and I have no idea why he chose this path. I don’t know if it was just an unwise choice of campaign consultants, or a move of desperation to try to be re-elected. Either way, it is certainly not a look that I want to see from our next County Judge.
I believe our next County Judge should be a good leader and a good manager. He needs to be someone who truly believes in transparency in county government…. someone who understands and can work well with other governmental agencies. Our next County Judge should place the Sheriff’s Department, the Volunteer Fire Departments, and the EMS on equal footing…and not tilt the funding scales so heavily toward just one entity that the other two suffer. Kirk Hanath has said that he wants our 911 Emergency Dispatch Department to be the best in the state. But if the Sheriff’s Department and Volunteer Fire Departments are not able to respond to emergencies, what good will that decorated 911 Department be?
Above all, the County Judge should tell the truth. And if someone cannot tell the truth in their campaign, how can we believe them should they be elected? Early voting in the Primary Runoff begins next Monday. I encourage you to get out and vote early, or on election day, May 26th. Your vote could decide what type of County Judge we have for the next four years. And that’s the way it looks to this Spectator.