When you reach county judge on the Pulaski County ballot Tuesday, it would be best to remember Voltaire’s advice: Don’t let the perfect be the enemy of the good.
Buddy Villines, who has been the county judge for six terms, is a far cry from a perfect public servant. He has made abundant mistakes, most memorably his appointment of a county controller who turned out to be something of a crook and then his defense of the county’s efforts to keep secret the man’s email correspondence with his illicit sweetie, with whom he was conducting business on behalf of the county. Judge Mary Ann McGowan scotched that business, thank goodness.
But Villines is an intelligent, thoughtful and occasionally visionary official.
A solution to the county’s biggest problem, paying for a vastly expanded jail, has eluded him and the quorum court because a slight majority of voters last year found the complicated tax remedy unacceptable. But that may be resolved by year’s end.
His opponent in the Democratic primary is Buddy York, a bail bondsman who ran two years ago as a Republican and got only a smattering of votes. York says he would build and operate a larger jail by cutting expenses here and there in county operations.
Law enforcement maybe? Sanitation?
You can’t shut down the courts.
And you can’t rob the road department for a jail. It’s illegal.
We see no real alternative to Villines in the primary.
The general election will deserve another look. There is a viable Republican candidate.
