So if you haven’t heard, the Lee County Board of Commissioners decided Monday to go against the wishes of the Lee County Republican Party and choose John Quiggle, a decidedly less right wing Republican, to replace Kirk Smith on the board over Harry Undy.
The decision has sent shockwaves through the local political landscape. You would think this is New Hampshire today, what with all the clamoring and postering going on from either side.
Personally, I feel it may have been wrong to go against the party’s wishes in the grand scheme of things. The Republicans won the seat and should be able to pick the replacement, though I’m not sure just how aligned Amy Stevens was with the local party leadership in the first place. After all, they were the ones who went after her following a trip to Hawaii for a commissioners conference last year instead of commissioner Jerry Lemmond, a Democrat who went on the same trip…
But I can also see where the Democrats on the board are coming from. This is the game that politicians play. Politicians, at heart, like all humans (and perhaps rightfully so) are self-interested. Given the choice of two nominations, those on the board are going to choose the one more closely aligned with their own beliefs. That’s why Linda Shook chose to support Undy, a man that almost no one knew in the room, over someone who has already been elected to a countywide seat on the school board.
I am reminded of an old Henry Kissinger quote on covert action in the Kurd regions of Iraq in the 1975. When testifying in front of a Congressional subcommittee, Kissinger said, “covert action is not missionary work.” The same can be said for politics. It’s not kind and never clean, but it is the game Richard Littiken and all the board members chose to play.
If the shoe was on the other foot, I have a very hard time believing that Littiken and other party members, holding a 5-to-1 majority on the commission, would allows for the Democrats to handpick the replacement. They already did once, allowing Littiken to put Smith on the board, and look how that turned out. The fact that the board approved Smith at all shocked me and should have been taken as a gesture of good will to a party that has very little clout in this county already.
If Republicans want to be mad at anyone, be mad at Smith for no fulfilling his term, or maybe be mad at Stevens for stepping down in the first place.
Don’t be mad at Jamie Kelly and the other board members for being politicians and making smart political moves. No one plays the game harder than a party chairman, and Littiken, above anyone else, should know that.
