Editorial: Monroe County’s mess

The Blade Editorial Board has a long history of disdain for political parties unable to field a candidate for a general election office. The sad situation in Monroe County, Michigan, is the latest example of the necessity to have a candidate on the ballot.

Monroe County Commissioner Mark Brant is unopposed for re-election despite his guilty plea to the federal felony of maintaining drug involved premises and the 18-month prison sentence imposed on him in U.S. District Court in Toledo. ( “County official may quit over conviction,” Friday )

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There is nothing but personal honor to bar Commissioner Brant from holding office because Michigan law prohibits public office only for crimes connected to service in that office. Ohio law is nearly identical to Michigan.

Commissioner Brant resigned his seat as chairman of the nine member Monroe County Commission on Tuesday night. But Brant told Blade reporter Alice Momany he will serve the next term if elected in November.

The odds that a last minute Democratic party write-in candidate will beat the singular name actually on the ballot are low. Resignation is mostly meaningless if Brant remains on the ballot unopposed.

There’s no political protection for Monroe County taxpayers from the outrage of paying an imprisoned county commissioner except cultural coercion that could move Brant to abandon his candidacy.

We trust it would be more comfortable for Brant’s return to Monroe County following prison and during his two-year supervised release not to be in the spotlight as a criminal commissioner. In this case Brant’s best decision for personal comfort and public service coincide in an end to his political career.

Where once the Republican Party could be counted upon to resist the stain of personal corruption inflicting political damage on the entire party, Ohio shows that’s no longer the case. Republican voters no longer punish political corruption.

Statehouse Republicans have done nothing to address the worst public corruption scandal in Ohio history.

There’s no moral superiority in Ohio. What’s happening in Monroe County could easily happen here, too. The only hope for maintaining minimal personal standards for elected officials is the sincerity of Brant’s claim that he’ll do what’s best for the county.

By that standard permanently stepping aside is Commissioner Brant’s only option.