Where there's a Will, there's a way

Schoenburg's column in the SJ-R today tells about an issue raised by newly elected SMEAA member Mike Ziri.

Ziri's beef is that Stratton, whose firm Stratton and Reichert is paid $1,250 per month by the Springfield Metropolitan Exposition & Auditorium Authority for the legal work, also represented candidates for SMEAA who were seeking to stay on the April ballot. Ziri, whose objections led to removal of three candidates from the ballot in his subdistrict, thinks that's a conflict of interest.

My experience running for county board, and with this blog, is that there's a group of Republicans within local government (certainly not all) that react to any fair comment about policy with defensive, angry responses as though they are above being criticized. That doesn't apply to my county board opponent who was always civil. But there are some who have the hate-radio mentality that any discussion of policy should be responded to with personal attacks.

I expect that Mike Ziri will get the same sort of response I received and we already see that happening in Mike Coffey's speculative quote in the SJ-R claiming that Ziri would never have gotten elected without others being removed from the ballot. Besides being impossible to prove, there's no good reason to respond to a critique on policy with a personal swipe like that. You can see more of that attitude in the nasty online comments to the story.

There aren't many elected officials in either party who speak out against the corrupt buddy system of patronage and pay-to-play in Sangamon County. I hope Mike keeps it up and doesn't let people lacking in civility and maturity keep him down.