Dems’ courthouse lease ran out

Zounds! There are actually elected Republicans who will be running offices, instead of just running for offices,  in the Jefferson County Courthouse, come Jan. 1! How long has it been since that happened?

Let’s see: Auditor’s office, 1976, as near as I can recall; assessor’s office, 1982; clerk’s office, way back in 1970. There are people around here born in that year, who now have grandchildren. Sheriff’s office, 1982. In Jefferson County, the GOP is coming off a long, long dry spell.

Jefferson County Indiana Courthouse

Why such a long period of Democratic ascendancy? Well, my party (yes, I’m a Democrat; worked the polls Tuesday for them) seemed to be able to pick better-known candidates, on average, who tended to be better campaigners. Sometimes the Republican hopefuls appeared to be rather country-clubbish when it came to meeting the public. But mainly, there is — or was, until this year — a large segment of the electorate in this county, especially outside the city of Madison, who would vote for a yellow dog if he had a sign that said “Democrat” on his collar. And — let’s be totally honest here — the Democrats learned that if they nominated a lot of Catholic candidates, Catholic voters were likely to support them in a bloc. That isn’t meant to offend anyone — I have many friends and some cousins who are Catholic. It’s just the facts in this county.

All this isn’t meant as a slap at any of the Democratic officeholders, who I think mainly did a creditable job all these years. But does it make sense to keep putting one party in control of all the local offices, year after year? And it’s not a “Democratic problem.” My party just happens to have the edge in registration around here. If you went to some county in central Indiana, where Republicans hold the majority of votes, no doubt you’d find courthouses where no Democrat has been an elected official in living memory.

Sheriff-elect John Wallace is not only the first Republican chosen as sheriff since 1978, but he’s only the second one since 1952, when the late Walter “Jaybird” Sauley was elected to his final two-year sheriff’s term before the office was changed to a four-year one. Harold “Jug” Raisor ousted Sauley in the 1954 election, going on to be elected four times as sheriff (before term limits of two terms were imposed on Indiana sheriffs).

And speaking of term limits: The way they are imposed in Indiana makes no sense at all. The treasurer’s office, recorder’s office, auditor’s office, clerk’s office, all have two-term limits on their elected officials. On the other hand, the offices of county commissioner and county councilman, which control the purse strings and run county government and are thus more powerful positions, have none. And — here’s the one that really gets my goat — the circuit and superior court judges, and the prosecutor, who have a lot of power, have no term limits at all, either. If it’s impermissible for a treasurer, recorder, auditor or clerk to serve more than two terms, presumably because they might get “too powerful,” then what about a judge, who can sign an order mandating that the county commissioners give him a bigger budget than the county can afford? Or a prosecutor, who has the power to file or not file criminal charges against Tom, Dick and Harry?

That last is just a thought. If it makes some people mad, well, I’ve made people mad before. If it makes some other people think, that’s good, because that’s what I intended.

Of course, the victories that the Republicans gained in this county on Tuesday came partly because the party had some good candidates who worked their fannies off in the campaign; partly because the Democrats had gotten complacent from long years in power; and partly because a GOP tsunami blew across the whole country Tuesday.

So the people who lost offices, or lost their races to be elected to offices, shouldn’t take it too personally. Part of it was local history; part of it was an energized opposition; and part of it was a national, political “perfect storm.”