Increase in number of local partisan races not needed

What the world needs is more petty partisan bickering between Republicans and Democrats! Pretty much no one in their right mind would utter these words except for maybe some politicians.

Mark White is Editor of The News Journal.

Last week the Williamsburg City Council approved a resolution opposing both House Bill 50 and Senate Bill 50, which are both pending in the Kentucky General Assembly. These bills would require the offices of mayor, city council and soil conservation commissioner to be partisan offices rather than non-partisan.

For anyone that doesn’t know, partisan means that candidates would run as a Republican or a Democrat or independent or some other political party. Non-partisan means that the offices have no party affiliations.

Currently, only six out of the 415 cities in Kentucky have partisan elections for their cities.

Williamsburg City Councilwoman Mary Ann Stanfill probably summed it up best when she said about the bills, “It’s not broken. Don’t fix it. I don’t see any benefit to it.”

I would take things a step further and argue that there are at least a few partisan races that really should be made non-partisan.

For instance, you would be hard pressed to tell anyone the difference between a Democrat coroner and a Republican coroner. Party affiliation has little to nothing to do with determining whether someone is dead.

I would argue that we’d be far better off amending our local elections and making pretty much every race non-partisan. If more than two people file to run for an office – regardless of their party affiliation – then we have a primary election. If the winner of the primary election doesn’t get at least 50.1 percent of the vote, then the top candidates square off in the November General Election.

If the primary winner gets 50.1 percent of the vote, then they win the race and there is no General Election in November for the position.

I would also contend that if you do this, you won’t see much difference in terms of the number of Republican and Democrats holding office.

For instance, in Whitley County and Laurel County the majority of those elected to office would still likely be Republicans as the voter registration for these counties is overwhelmingly Republican and voters in those counties generally favor Republican ideas and principles.

In Democratic strongholds like Fayette and Jefferson counties, the overwhelming number of elected officials will remain Democrats as the voter registration in both of those counties is overwhelmingly Democrat and voters in those counties generally favor Democratic ideas and principles.

Now to touch on a few other topics before I conclude this column.

• Congratulations to former News Journal intern and later fulltime reporter Jennifer Kaylyn Perkins.

Less than one year ago, she left us to take a position as a producer for WYMT television in Hazard. Just last week, the station announced she had been promoted and is the sixth news director in the history of the station. She is also the first female to hold that position.

Jennifer is one of the brightest journalists that I have ever had the privilege of knowing, and this is a great accomplishment for any journalist, especially one as young as she is. I have the feeling that this is only the tip of the iceberg in terms of her potential though.

• Let me also offer congratulations to former Baptist Health Corbin President Larry Gray. Larry, who is currently president of Baptist Health Louisville, announced recently on Facebook that he will be retiring from the Baptist Health in a few months after nearly 40 years.

I think many people will join me in wishing Larry a happy retirement. You’ve earned it.