DRASTIC CHANGE IN MAKEUP OF OLDHAM COUNTY FISCAL COURT

Five incumbents lost their position on the Oldham County fiscal court on Tuesday, May 18, 2010. That, along with the defeat of Paula Gish by David Voegele will surely change the way the county government is run and hopefully it is the end of “politics as usual” in the county.

Magistrate Iva Davis was defeated by JD Sparks in her attempt to serve a second term. Magistrate Scott Davis was also defeated in his bid for a second term. He was defeated by Kevin Eldridge. Long time incumbent Robert "Bob" Deibel, Jr. was defeated by Mike Logsdon. Incumbent Steve Church was defeated by former magistrate Brent Likens and another long time magistrate, Rick Rash was defeated by Bob Dye. Dye had narrowly lost to Rash in 2006. Therefore, his defeat of Rash was predicted by many people. Rash had essentially followed the establishment and had voted for all fee and tax increases. Further, he supported the unpopular attempt to construct an airpor in the county.

Could it be that the people are in the mood to vote against any incumbent? Since only two incumbents were re-elected one might easily come to that conclusion. However, I believe that most of the people that were defeated in Oldham county had ties to the development industry and the people in Oldham County want to take back control of their county. Certainly the people were not happy with Murner/development administration. With the economic times being what they are the people were also tired of higher taxes and fees.

Only one of the magistrates that lost did not have ties to development. That was Scott Davis and the Oldham Era did a lot to unseat him. They wrote an article about his recent business problems and committed many “sins of omission” by not telling the entire story as they knew it. Scott Davis did more to open up the government of Oldham County than any other magistrate in my thirty-three years of residence in this county. The Oldham Era even chastised him for trying to bring about transparency regarding the anonymous donation to the county while admitting that the newspaper should have been pursuing the issue but did not do so. He followed his campaign promises of four years ago and kept in touch with his constituency while also voting against all fee and tax increases. Someday the people will realize what they have lost. I suppose that the people decided that he was guilty without giving him an opportunity to prove his innocence.

From what I know of the people who were elected on Tuesday, I believe that Oldham County will have a better government. I believe that the newly elected officials will be inquisitive and that will be a welcome change over most of the people they will be replacing who seemed to be happy to blindly follow the leadership of Duane Murner. On the other hand, I believe that they will be working with the best interests of the county in their hearts. January 1, 2011 will the dawning of a new day!