I was quite disheartened by the letter to the editor submitted by Commissioner Wayne Nothstein on Oct. 28. He obviously felt the need to reassure voters that Sydney Wernett, a candidate for clerk of courts, was absolutely not a Democrat, as though being a Democrat would automatically disqualify her for that position. Let’s look at some facts.

A few years ago, a Democrat took over the office of clerk of courts and cleaned it up. Her accomplishments were praised by everyone including this newspaper. However, in the election four years ago she was defeated by a Republican whose major qualification was that she was a Republican. Since then, her lack of real qualifications and experience has proved disastrous and she lost the support of many Republicans, including the Republican row officers and one county commissioner. But she has been elected again, probably because of the “R” next to her name.

It is also evident that the only fiscally responsible member of our board of commissioners is a Democrat. He alone voted against spending $9 million to buy and refurbish a rundown school building instead of looking for cost saving alternatives. The offer to purchase this building has been withdrawn, caused by an avoidable crisis in the department of Children and Youth.

For more than 10 years now, our county has been under Republican rule, both in the state representative’s office and the county commissioners office. In that time, we have seen a decrease in jobs and an increase in drug addiction. Anecdotal evidence indicates we also have an increase in crime. Our children suffer from a lack of equitable funding in our schools, but our school taxes continue to go up. Our young people are leaving and not coming back.

Voters in this county need to wake up and realize that qualifications and experience must be considered before party affiliation. We must start voting for candidates who know what they are doing. And if it becomes clear that they are not doing the job, we must vote them out.

Sincerely,

Marian R. Hoffner

Palmerton