The sheriff of Benton County has been rooting around in my voting records.
Isn't that fun?
As editorial page editor, I lead our efforts to interview candidates each political season. Our four-member editorial board then makes decisions about which candidates in Benton and Washington counties to endorse. This year, we issued endorsements in every local contested race in both Democrat or Republican primaries. We'll do it again for the contested races on the November ballot.
This year, one member of the board, our company president, had demands that prevented his participation, so the other three -- Editor Rusty Turner, one of our city editors, Mike Jones, and me -- took up the work.
I launched this year's endorsements on Feb. 11, explaining why we do them: "On our editorial page, we devote time and space to discussing the issues relevant to the readers of Northwest Arkansas, with a major focus on the growing areas of Benton and Washington counties. Come election time, it makes sense to throw our few cents' worth into the discussion involving candidates running for public office. So today, we begin a few days of endorsements, mindful that readers will make their own decisions at the ballot box. Our endorsements, as always, are intended to be a part of the community discussion, not an attempt to dictate anyone's vote."
We didn't endorse Kelley Cradduck for a third two-year term as sheriff for a host of reasons. That could come as a shock to no one, given our criticisms of Cradduck's poor performance over the last couple of years. To his credit, he still showed up for the interview. We invited him just as we had the other three candidates for the GOP nomination -- Paul Pillaro, Shawn Holloway and Tim Filbeck. A fifth candidate, Glenn Latham, is an independent who won't appear on any ballot until November.
Most candidates recognize a newspaper endorsement may or may not go their way and just roll with the punches. Not Cradduck. Last week, on Cradduck's Twitter account, this question brought a chuckle: "Editors of Democrat-Gazette used their paper and made endorsements for the Republican primary but actually voted Democrat! ETHICAL?"
My first reaction: Really? Cradduck's strategy to get re-elected sheriff is to comb through my voting record and tweet about them to his 82 followers on Twitter?
Then there was this on Facebook: "Well we have records that show the Editors of the Democrat Gazette have all voted in the Democrat Primary. Yet they use the newspaper to endorse what we consider the weaker Republican Party of Benton County Candidate. Could this be so that in the General Election in November that they want the independent candidate to win?"
Wow. He got us good, didn't he? We endorse in contested races, whether they are in the Democratic Party or the Republican Party. And yes, as citizens, we take seriously our responsibility to cast votes for those who want to represent the public. So, it's a no-brainer that our votes will sometime be cast in party primaries opposite some of the people we endorse or don't endorse.
But let's get it out on the table if it matters to anyone:
• Rusty Turner voted in Benton County GOP primaries in 1996, 1998, 2000, 2001 (special congressional primary), 2002, 2004, 2006, 2008, 2010, 2012, 2014, and just last week for 2016. His one foray into a Democratic voting happened in 2008, when the presidential primary was separated from local offices. That's the year Mike Huckabee was the guaranteed winner in the GOP contest (he got 60 percent of all GOP voting in Arkansas). On the Democratic side was that little race between someone named Hillary Clinton and a guy named Barack Obama. A bunch of folks in Northwest Arkansas crossed over for that contest.
• Like Turner, Mike Jones voted in that Democratic presidential primary in 2008. His Benton County primary voting record ever since has been "R" all the way, including this primary.
• I'm the outlier of the group. I live in Fayetteville, so Cradduck could certainly blast me for coming from such a foreign land and trying to influence the conservative people of Benton County. But wait! There's more. I voted Republican in the 2014 primary and will again this year, but I cast Democratic primary ballots in 2012, 2010, 2006, 2004, 2002, in that 2001 congressional primary, and in 2000 and 1998. I voted Republican in the 2008 presidential primary.
Does that record make me the Bernie Sanders of the editorial board? Ask some of my liberal friends in Fayetteville (yes, you can be friends with them) and they'll laugh at the suggestion. But until the last few years in Washington County, where were the local contested races in the primaries? Yes, in the Democratic primaries. Washington County Republicans for years were lucky to find one candidate to run for each office, much less give voters a choice. I tend to vote where I think my vote will make a difference.
So there's the big reveal from the Cradduck campaign. Like a con man working to make you take your eyes off the shells he's shuffling, Cradduck's campaign hopes to distract.
The sheriff's race isn't about whether some newspaper guy is a Republican or Democrat. Newspapers have issued endorsements since before Cradduck or I were even born. Nothing unethical about that.
People of every political persuasion can spot a bad candidate, and they can spot poor performance by an elected official.
Cradduck had his chance to be an outstanding sheriff. Benton County residents will elect the candidate they want to lead the sheriff's office for the next two years. It's my belief the people of Benton County won't fall for the diversionary theatrics of Cradduck. They deserve better leadership -- heck, they deserve leadership -- in the Benton County Sheriff's Office. They will not get it in Cradduck.
An ABC approach is the best chance the voters have to get the sheriff's office going in the right direction.
Anybody But Cradduck.
Commentary on 02/22/2016