A PRISONER OF HIS OWN PROPAGANDA

A screwup is a screwup, no matter how otherwise "nice" the person who made it.

Eric Carper, a very nice guy from a very nice family, in his own brochure, has placed into issue the question of prisoners "working" in the Clerk's office. He's an engineering guy. He's supposed to know that one examines a problem from all angles before attempting to proclaim a solution. He obvously didn't.

First, who's in charge of the physical plant at the courthouse? By law, it's the Sheriff. The Sheriff can send in anybody he wants to transport refuse or carry discarded documents to be destroyed. So, when Eric attacks prisoner use, he attacks the titular head of our party, our Sheriff, who happens to be on the ballot this fall. One really would have thought Eric's many advisers might have mentioned that to him before he mailed out a brochure comtaining such a claim.

Second, they keep records about where supervised prisoners work. Those records are accessible to the public. I'm sure Eric's crack committee checked that all out before the brochure went out to many households. A fair conclusion to the Question "How much did prisoners 'work' in the Clerk's office." could be stated "Not nearly often enough!".

All of which kind of gets us to the third point which is the concept of SWAP anyhow. Why should the highly skilled employee's of the Clerk's office waste their time carrying discarded material to be shredded or doing other menial tasks when there are people who will do it at no cost to the taxpayers, thus allowing the highly trained deputy clerks to continue plying their skills in their specialties?

Fourth, there is no recorded instance of a prisoner handling any services for the public in any part of the courthouse. That is left to the union members, who do it admirably. The courthouse crawls with peace officers and other court officers. Does anybody seriously think for one minute such a thing could go on unabated and unnoticed?

Fifth, Eric says he will bar prisoners from the Clerk's office. I guess this means the women who work there had better take a work-hardening course to lift the discarded documents designated to go to destruction. Maybe we can get some back belts for them. Of course, the clerk can't bar work -release prisoners who have legitimate business in the clerk's office. That would be an interesting conversation "You can't change your voter registration address, you're a prisoner!" "You can't get a marriage license, you're a prisoner!"

Sixth, this lame issue is a symptom of his whole campaign concept "Vote for me because the incumbent's not nice!" or the more refined "Vote for me because I'm not Georgia Volm!" That stuff usually only resonates with a small number of people but, for the sake of argument, let's say it succeeds in March. What does he have left to offer the General Electorate? "I've been on the ballot since December and I haven't ever once told you my credentials or why I'm a good choice, but by God, I'm not Georgia Volm!" The electorate would properly say "So what?"

I will concede one thing. This is not the lamest argument he could have made. Of course, he's making that one too. I'm saving it for later.

I ,for one, would be interested in his background, experience and education. The Clerk is the Election Official, Comptroller, Recorder, Archivist, Parliamentary Secretary and Retirement representative for County Government. What does Eric have in his background that would show he can do all those jobs well?

If Eric Carper wins our primary, I want him to be electable. I'll want to help him. That'll be a tough trick if he doesn't start telling us pretty soon why he should be Clerk instead of why somebody else shouldn't.