By Scott Tibbs, August 1, 2016
In a statement to the Herald-Times when she announced her candidacy to finish the term, of replace outgoing Monroe County Auditor in a Democratic Party caucus, independent candidate Therese Chambers said she will "restore trust, honesty and integrity to the office."
By saying this, Chambers admits that there is a problem with "trust, honesty and integrity" in the Auditor's Office where she currently serves as Chief Deputy. Chambers served under both Saulter and Amy Gerstman, who left office in disgrace after it was discovered that she used her county government credit to pay for personal expenses. Why has Chambers not managed to "restore trust, honesty and integrity to the office" as Chief Deputy? Can someone tell me why she is qualified again?
This is to say nothing of the extremely strange circumstances surrounding the caucus. Chambers is an independent candidate running against the Democratic nominee, Cathy Smith. Yet the Democrats are prepared to give Chambers the advantage of incumbency to the political detriment of their own party's candidate. Are you telling me that not a single Democrat could fill that seat for five months?
If the Republican Party asked me as a precinct committeeman to place an independent candidate into office who was opposing the Republican candidate for that office, I would revolt. What does this say about Cathy Smith, and how even her own party views her?
We need to clean up this mess in county government, and continuing to put the same group of people in charge will not get the job done. If the voters elect Cathy Smith (who has had enormous problems balancing her books as County Treasurer) or Therese Chambers (who stood aside and allowed Gerstman and Saulter to engage in very shady deeds) we will have the same mess with a different name at the top.
The only chance we have to clean up this disaster is to elect someone who is not in the middle of it. That would be the Republican candidate, Ann Boehm.
