Choose incumbents in Leighton, Hopkins township races

EDITOR”S NOTE: My motto ever since launching this on-line rag has been, “I report what I see and hear. And sometimes I comment on it.”

With that in mind, the following is the fourth of a series of political endorsements or positions for the Aug. 2 primary election, which is only five days away:

Leighton Township has a couple of primary election contests Tuesday and Hopkins Township has one.

In Leighton, Steve Deer, who has served as supervisor after being appointed in 2012 to fill out the term of Kevin DeKam, is the better choice. I have had issues with him over the proposed air park, which I still oppose as an editor and a resident of Leighton Township.

However, Deer has shown himself to be a politician of integrity (which is hard to find these days) and has been above board in staying out of the debate because of his partnership in the project.

I still maintain the air strip would be a “playground for the privileged” and I suggest instead use of the airport next to the bowling alley on Division, just north of the Wayland city limits.

I suspect the air park is one of the issues that has prompted Diana Moore to challenge Deer for the supervisor’s post. She ran for clerk four years ago against Mary Lou Niewenhuis and was clobbered by a wider margin than the State Legislature’s disastrous roads proposition of May 2015.

Moore, a nurse, is the wife of former Supervisor Spencer Moore, so it’s not like she’s a novice.

Yet a novice best describes Board Trustee candidate Matthew Vander Eide, a hydrogeologist who seemed candid when he told the Penasee Globe, “I will provide new perspectives and introduce a leadership style that inspires collaboration, open communication and positive outcomes.”

What he doesn’t seem to understand is that he really doesn’t provide voters a solid reason to “throw the rascals out” because the Leighton Township Board has been doing a reasonably good job, with the possible exception of the air park issue.

So I recommend returning John Hooker for a third term as a trustee, along with Brian Bonnema for his second. The reason is simple: “If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it.”

I use the same logic is endorsing the candidacy of incumbent Sandra Morris, who is running for her second term. She also was Hopkins Village Clerk for nine years.

Her opponent, Kathy Laseur, is no slouch, owning a master’s degree in accounting from Davenport University, but just like the newcomer for Leighton trustee, she doesn’t provide a compelling reason to have Morris sent packing.

Laseur, incidentally, ran against Morris and lost four years ago.

I am fully aware that incumbents are too difficult to defeat at the polls. More than 95 percent of congress members and state senators and legislators are invincible in re-election efforts. But in these three cases, it appears the knowns are the better choices.

PHOTOS: Diana Moore   Steve Deer

Sandra Morris   Kathy Laseur