Anderson wins Endorsement!

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Editorial: Anderson is better for Greene County

By the Dayton Daily News | Saturday, October 2, 2010, 12:00 AM
2010 Election

Click here to read letters of endorsement for the candidates.

Greene County voters can either re-elect Republican Alan Anderson as one of their three county commissioners. Or they can take a chance on Democrat Steve Key.

They should re-elect Mr. Anderson.

An attorney who has represented local governments — including Beavercreek Twp., Jamestown, Yellow Springs, Clifton and Spring Valley — he was elected four years ago. Judging from his literature, he wants voters to know that he’s not raised taxes and that he opposes “Obamacare and Obama socialism or any form of socialism.”

Pressed about what he’s trying to reassure voters about, he concedes that concerns about socialism don’t often come up in his role as county commissioner.

Mr. Anderson says his interests as a commissioner have been bringing high-speed Internet service to rural areas of the county; improving the capacity of the county’s water department and getting Clark State University to have a physical presence in the county, which it does now have just off I-675.

Mr. Anderson can be overly parochial, witness his reluctance to vote to put up much money for the Dayton Development Coalition. Given just how hard that group advocates for Wright-Patterson Air Force Base, that’s hardly an expenditure to be stingy about.

And there’s something unfair about Greene County kicking in a lot of money when the Base Realignment and Closure Commissions are in full swing, but then pulling back after any threats have been repelled.

Protecting Wright-Patterson, after all, lasts beyond the BRAC rounds.

Mr. Anderson has experience that’s relevant to the job, and he can dig into issues that he cares about.

Mr. Key says his employment is a contract to gather local statistical data for the U.S. Department of Commerce. He’s also worked as an organizer for the Kerry and Obama campaigns in rural counties in Ohio and formerly he was a bank trust officer.

His campaign literature quotes Gary Haines, the former Montgomery County sheriff who died in 2000 and has since been succeeded by two different sheriffs. Mr. Haines, Mr. Key says, called him “Mr. Fix It” with regard to a gun buy-back program.

Mr. Key believes county commission meetings should be televised, and he’s critical that the commission has all Republicans on it. Asked what he takes issue with that the county is doing, he had no major criticisms.

Mr. Anderson’s local government experience goes beyond the four years he’s been on the commission. That background counts for something. To move out an incumbent, Mr. Key has to make a stronger case than just that Greene County is too cozy.