Committed to Serving

I want to take a minute to let you know that I am committed to fulfilling the full term if elected to serve as your Boone County Clerk.  I categorically rule out using the clerk’s office as a stepping stone to run for higher office. 

I am disappointed but not surprised by Kenny Brown’s comments in an October 22 posting on NKY.COM that if he were to run for state office he would have to move or run in Kenton County, which is  a result of legislative redistricting that left Brown’s home precinct split into multiple legislative districts.

Given Kenny’s unsuccessful run in the 1996 Democratic primary for a state house seat, representing Boone and Gallatin counties, I am not surprised at his continued interest in running for the legislature.  Voters deserve to know I am absolutely, categorically not using this office as a political stepping stone. 

 

I question Brown’s suggestion that he would “mail a letter to voters” whose polling place may change as a result of redistricting.  I am pretty confident if you ask 100 voters in Boone County what precinct they vote in, by name, less than 20 percent could tell you.  County Clerks and Boards of Election across Kentucky adjust precinct boundaries and polling places annually based on population shifts.  It appears my opponent is using the unfortunate situation as an opportunity to mail a puff piece outlining the redistricting process just in time for his re-election campaign. Mailing this letter would amount to little more than a publically funded campaign mailer.

 

I share the outrage of State Senator John Schickel in the whole redistricting process.  I am disappointed the Republicans in the Senate followed the House blindly by supporting a plan which is so grossly unfair to one of the state’s major economic engines.

However, I find it unbelievable the precinct split was a punishment for Brown’s lawsuit against the legislature which prompted a special session costing tax payers over $300,000.  The plan Brown filed suit against split 122 precincts statewide; the current plan splits 115, and tore Boone County into 5 house districts. I truly wonder what was achieved to the benefit of the people of Boone County. Lawsuits against redistricting have become common place. It stretches the imagination to believe the members of the Kentucky house care what precinct the Boone County Clerk votes in.