Digging In
With Republican power broker Jeff Roe and his vaunted Axiom Strategies election consulting firm running roughshod all over the state, handling some 47 candidates according to Roe himself, it is interesting to note that it is in tiny Platte County that two Democratic candidates are digging in their heels.
Siobhann Williams, Democratic candidate for Platte County auditor, and Jason Grill, Democratic candidate for State Representative for Parkville’s district, are fighting hard for their respective offices and both should be commended for that, particularly since the Democratic party in Platte County has struggled to place names on the ballot in recent years – let alone mount campaigns and win elections.
While Grill put together a feisty campaign last time around as well, Williams’ entry into the auditor’s race was overshadowed by the persistent rumor that local attorney and Republican activist Michael Gunn was going to mount a challenge against incumbent Republican Sandra Thomas. A key political ally of former Platte County Commissioner Michael Short, Gunn’s anticipated entry into the race would have had really underscored the political rift between the leading Republicans in Platte County – namely the faction supporting Short and company and the faction in league with James Thomas, III – husband of Sandra and District 6 Republican Chairman.
Williams entered the race as an instantly credible candidate. Southern Platte County and Parkville in particular are largely just waking up to the political soap opera unfolding around them. That’s because most area Republicans – at least most of the ones I track with – are too busy taking care of business to play the at-home political game. And Williams was someone who had served on the Parkville Chamber of Commerce, serves as president for the Parkville Community Development Corporation and is widely recognized as an active local volunteer. She has the resume – she’s a CPA with government experience – and she has guts. Everyone knew that if she had went up against Thomas, the Thomas/Roe machine was going to come after her hard.
As per norm when it comes to political news in Platte County, The Luminary was the first to break the story of her candidacy. Within moments of confirming the news, the dispatch went out over our wireless service and was instantly delivered to the service’s subscribers. Within minutes, I received a text message back from a close friend of the Thomas family.
“She’s not a CPA,” it read.
I had to laugh. It certainly didn’t take long for the machine to kick in, I thought. At the time, I was in Miami Beach, but I took the moment to put my empanada down and fish out Williams’ business card from my wallet. Glancing at it, it still read CPA. So I rang up Ms. Williams and asked if she was lying.
“No,” she replied, stating that it was a matter of public record. While I was on the phone, she even looked it up and gave me the URL. Good enough, I said. It wasn’t until later that I learned that even the best political machines have a hard time spelling ancient Gaelic names like “Siobhann.” That sort of thing tends to return cloudy results when searching online databases.
We search a few databases ourselves here at The Parkville Luminary and we’re pretty sure that we had our spelling right when we culled the information we report on page one in regards to William’s opponent in the race, Ruby Maline. It didn’t give us any pleasure to report on Mrs. Maline’s financial woes and some – namely Mrs. Maline – will question whether it was pertinent to report on at all. I think in this case, it’s best to let the voters decide.
The county is growing by leaps and bounds and the type of small-town, vote-for-me-because-we-spat-watermelon-seeds-off the-front-porch-as-kids type of politics just isn’t really going to cut it anymore.
I noticed that Platte County Treasurer Bonnie Brown sent The Luminary a press release for the Eleemosynary Society fund raiser, but was conspicuously placed on the pay-no-mind list when it came to issuing statements or returning calls during our reports on the missing $200,000 she was partly responsible for a few weeks ago. When the county is growing like it is, and with the budget as large as it is, and the staff as concentrated as it is, there is really no room for error.