October 24, 2007 02:23 pm
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In 2003, Democrat Crit Luallen narrowly defeated Republican Linda Greenwell, a political newcomer from Spencer County, for state auditor in the closest race on that year’s ballot.
Greenwell again is challenging Luallen in a rematch from four years ago, but this time around, the race should not be a cliffhanger. Luallen has established a superb record a auditor that has earned her a second term. She clearly is the best candidate in this race.
In 2003, Greenwell benefited immensely from the coattails of Ernie Fletcher, who defeated Democrat Ben Chandler to become the first Republican governor in 32 years.
Fletcher’s promise to “clean up the mess in Frankfort” also created an anti-Frankfort atmosphere that took votes away from Luallen, a Frankfort insider if there ever was one. Although the auditor’s race was Luallen’s first run for elective office, she had held key positions in the administrations of seven Democratic governors, including serving as Gov. Paul Patton’s cabinet secretary. In fact, Luallen’s close ties to Patton — whose extramarital affair with Tina Connor had thwarted his political ambitions — also did her no favors in her race against Greenwell.
But that was then. From our vantage point, she has been one of the most aggressive and effective auditors in recent memory, both by conducting audits that have revealed some serious management problems with county governments and by conducting performance audits of other programs.
Her office’s performance audits have been among the most beneficial to the state. A performance audit of jails revealed how the lockups are a drain on local county budgets and recommended an eventual state takeover of jails. Her audit of the impact of double digit increases in tuition showed how the high cost of college was making it impossible for some Kentuckians to attend and had actually resulted in a decline in the number of in-state students at some schools. While Luallen was criticized by some for a performance audit that revealed that many state employees who took a half-day off to vote never cast ballots, the light she shined on this issue greatly reduced that number in subsequent elections.
Greenwell has accused Luallen of targeting Republican officeholders with her audits while going lighter on Democrats, but statistics do not support that claim. This auditor has been just as critical of Democrats as Republicans in her audits.
While it was viewed as a negative by some voters in 2003, Luallen’s years of service in state government actually work to her advantage. She knows how Frankfort works as well as anyone there, and that’s an asset.
On the other hand, Greenwell has no particular qualifications to serve as auditor. She has a degree in police administration from the University of Louisville, but never used that degree. Instead, she spent many years as an operations manager for UPS in Louisville.
Clearly, Crit Luallen is the superior candidate in this race. She should be re-elected.
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