What’s Trump got to do with Benton Co. sheriff? New leader must be more than GOP lackey
When it comes to selecting Benton County’s next sheriff, apparently law enforcement experience is not as important as an applicant’s loyalty to the Republican Party.
At least that’s how it looks.
Judging by the interview questions leaked to the Tri-City Herald, it appears the selection committee was more concerned with administering a GOP litmus test than confirming that applicants had the qualifications to do the job.
After former Sheriff Jerry Hatcher was recalled by the voters in August, it was up to the nominating board of the Benton County Republican Party to interview applicants and submit three names to the county commissioners who will make the final appointment.
Those finalists are: Tom Croskrey, Jon Law and John Hodge — all three are solid candidates.
But it is still disconcerting that the nominating committee’s questions were more about GOP devotion than bringing healing to the office — especially after all the turmoil in the department the past two years.
Some of those questions included:
Do you know the Republican Platform and do you support Donald Trump’s America First Agenda?
What does the phrase, “Constitutional Sheriff,” mean to you?
Do you think every person must have a COVID vaccine and should they be required by government to get one?
Granted, there were other questions on the list that asked about improving the culture in the sheriff’s department and attracting new deputies.
But a fair number focused only on Republican Party beliefs.
This latest GOP exercise is an example of why there is an emerging effort around the state to make more executive offices nonpartisan.
Elections are not necessarily a good way to get the best person for jobs that require technical and administrative expertise. That’s because many voters, unfortunately, are too easily misled by campaign rhetoric.
With the current divisive political climate, there’s a real danger that extremist candidates could end up in positions for which they are not qualified.
Who cares if county coroners are Democrat or Republican? What matters most is that they know how to determine the cause of death.
Is it really critical to know if county treasurers and county assessors lean Red or Blue? Isn’t it more important that these office-holders have exceptional financial skills?
Washington Secretary of State Kim Wyman, the only Republican currently holding a state office, is a high-profile example of an elected official who would like to see her office changed to nonpartisan status.
Last year she and her team drafted a bill that would have accomplished that, but in the end it was never submitted to the Legislature.
But she still thinks “it’s time to have a robust conversation” on whether all these executive offices should be partisan. She told the Tri-City Herald that when an elected office is partisan, “it takes it to another level.”
And that level can get ugly.
Wyman is known as a national expert on the vote-by-mail system. Since COVID-19 hit, she was the primary source for election officials across the country wanting advice on how to avoid in-person voting.
She has been a trustworthy defender of fair and accurate elections since she was elected in 2012. But some Democrats last year tried to link her to Donald Trump’s attacks on mail-in voting just to win votes for her challenger.
As it happens, Wyman repeatedly defended Washington state’s vote-by-mail ballot system against Trump’s slander. If any elected position should be nonpartisan, it’s the Secretary of State.
The public needs to have trust in the office, and that trust will be enhanced if the person in charge can be seen as truly neutral.
While it’s true political parties get involved in nonpartisan races all the time, taking an “R” or“D” out of the candidates’ biographies likely would take the vitriol down a notch.
And when an appointment must be made — like in the case of the Benton County sheriff — the applicants’ skill sets would be more important than their views on the Trump agenda.