Predictable

How are local Democrats reacting to Susan Bucher's just announced run to unseat Palm Beach County Elections Supervisor Arthur Anderson? George Bennet at the Palm Beach Post has the answer.

Democratic state Rep. Susan Bucher's challenge of Democratic incumbent Arthur Anderson for the nonpartisan elections supervisor's job creates a dilemma for Dems.

"I would like to see our incumbents, good incumbents, being protected by the party," county Democratic Chairman Wahid Mahmood told the Politics column.

So is registered Democrat Anderson a "good incumbent" who merits protection?

"In my view he has done a pretty good job," Mahmood said. But he added it would be "premature" to comment on the Bucher challenge, and "I can't stop somebody from running for an office."

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Democratic County Commissioner Addie Greene, a key Anderson supporter in 2004, said she's "disappointed" in Bucher.

"I think he's done an excellent job. ... No one is perfect. The amount of mistakes that he has made does not justify somebody coming out to run against him," Greene said.

Party officials with rare exception, will always support an incumbent no matter how competent or incompetent they are at the job. TFM on the other hand sees primary challenges as giving voters a choice. The more choices available, the more likely the right person will be elected to public office.

As for Anderson, there is plenty of evidence to say he isn't doing a competent job as elections supervisor, alone an excellent job as Adele Greene says. For instance.

1- Two months ago Dr. Andersen asked for a 87% percent increase in his office budget.

2- He hired people for the elections office who had worked on his campaign. At salaries higher than current employees.

3- Dr. Andersen sees part of his work as informing voters about local issues, like the ongoing Scripps debacle(another multi million dollar waste of money by our local politicians)among others. He was elected Elections Supervisor not town crier.

4- It came out after the election that Dr. Andersen didn't disclose a loan to his campaign and some bank accounts he has on financial disclosure forms. Dr. Andersen has agreed to pay a fine to the Florida commission on ethics as was today reported in the Palm Beach Post.

That was in a blog post written barely six months after Arthur Anderson was elected to office. More recently we have these events.

1- Giving an audience to goofball Clint Curtis.
2- Miscounting the results of one Palm Beach County City's race.
3- Delays in announcing the results of last September's primary.
4- The sending out of absentee voter envelopes without the ballots!
5- The miscalculation of how much optical scan ballots would cost.

When you add all this up, Arthur Anderson looks pretty incompetent to me. How about you?

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