BROWNSBORO FORUM

The Brownsboro Conservation Group hosted a forum at Fox Hollow for the candidates for Oldham County Judge/Executive, Property Valuation Administrator, County Attorney and three magisterial districts. The attendance for the event was outstanding as there was standing room only. I believe that the response was better than expected by the host. It was certainly better than I expected.

The host was gracious enough to allow me to tape the entire program. I have yet to review the tape but I made some interesting observations while there.

Nobody accused Paula Gish of taking money from developers in return for favors; however, she must have a guilty conscious as she remarked that she was offended that anyone would think that she would accept contributions from anyone for the promise of a favor. She has good reason to have a guilty conscious unless she believes that the people of Oldham County are all naïve or stupid.

After all, a huge amount of Gish’s contributions have come from “special interest” groups. Everyone knows that the contributors expect something in return. Does she really believe that the public does not see through that?

Then there was Rick Rash being his usual obnoxious self. Rash just seemed to want to find fault with most of the questions that were asked of him as though the person who formed the question was an idiot and that it was his duty to inform everyone. Mr. Rash just can’t seem to keep from being condescending to people. He also made several statements about achievements that the county has made since he has been a magistrate. On the other hand, he didn’t tell the people how he had voted for every tax increase – including the doubling of the insurance premium tax.

At least Bob Deibel did not try to show the people in attendance that he was smarter than they were. As usual, he was very polite. However, he did say that he had done everything that Rash did, implicating that he was entitled to the same accolades. Yes, he voted for all of those tax increases also.

The forum made one thing clear. Gish is, and has been, in lockstep with the Murner administration. She made that perfectly clear. However, I believe that a review of her campaign contributions had already erased any doubt that people had about that.