On Monday evening, June 7, the Knox County Republican Party had a chance to speak out against dishonest and corrupt government.  It didn’t, but instead embraced it.

The Knox County Republican Party had a chance to take a stand against dishonesty and corruption in government.  It didn’t, but instead embraced it by voting for Tanner Salyers to be our next county recorder. To be clear, Mr. Salyers did not do anything illegal himself; but he did condone the dishonest and corrupt conduct of the Mount Vernon Safety-Service Director, Rick Dzik.

It was just about 30 days ago that Dzik purposely changed the voting order of Mount Vernon City Council to intentionally manipulate the legislative process and final vote on two critical pieces of pending legislation.  Despite this abuse of his position and public office, Mayor Matt Starr somehow rationalized that what Dzik did was not “a fireable offense” and suspended Dzik.  Tanner Salyers suggested that such behavior was acceptable when he referred to Dzik’s conduct as a “small thing” and “small potatoes”; supported Mayor Starr’s decision to only suspend Dzik; and stated he is “willing for it to be water under the bridge”, gone and forgotten.

Rather than condemning Dzik, Salyers focused on the voting rotation that has been in place for over 30 years, calling it “stupid”.  He vowed to propose an ordinance to change how council votes, as if that and not Dzik’s conduct was the problem.  Whether Salyers’ comments were a purposeful deflection of Dzik’s behavior or a total lack of understanding of the real issue, he was wrong.  It was against this backdrop that, on Monday evening (June 7), the Knox County Republican Central Committee met to pick a replacement for County Recorder John Lybarger who retired.  Although there were several candidates, the Committee, in a split vote, nominated Tanner Salyers who was deemed to be “highly qualified”.

Was Salyers’ nomination in spite of, or a reward for, his blind, unwarranted and misguided support of Dzik and the Mayor.  In either event, how could members of the Committee support and promote for the head of a county office any person who denies or fails to understand that the abuse of public office and voting fraud is corrupt, and that corruption in any form is inexcusable, indefensible and inherently wrong.  Additionally, Salyers had the audacity to say such conduct should have been handled “internally”, in other words, not made public.  So much for transparency.

Has the Knox County Republican Party abandoned the ideal of government “of the people, by the people, for the people”?  Has the legacy of the “Party of Lincoln” been replaced by arrogance towards and contempt for the people; a belief that  government exits for the benefit of those in power rather than for the people it is suppose to serve?  Shouldn’t a political party demand integrity, honesty and good judgment from those seeking and or holding public office, and require accountability when their decisions and actions fail us?  We will get as bad a government as we are willing to tolerate, or as good a government as we are willing to demand, the choice is ours!  The leaders of our local political parties and elected officials need to know that we, the people, deserve and expect much better from them.