Treasurer endorsement -- Melinda Wheeler

Like commissioner of agriculture, state treasurer is a position we believe should not be elected. In fact, we’re in favor of abolishing the office and assigning the office’s few duties to other areas of state government.

This year, there’s a candidate for the office who agrees with us.

Melinda Wheeler, the Republican nominee for treasurer, wants to see the office abolished. She believes, as we do, that the office is not needed and its duties can be farmed out to other personnel.

Wheeler emerged from a crowded field of Republican candidates that included three GOP state representatives, Lonnie Napier, Ken Upchurch and Brandon Smith. She has spent her career with state government, not as a political hack like Crit Luallen because of her party allegiances, but with the Administrative Office of the Courts in the non-partisan judicial branch. She’s a native of Paintsville, in the eastern part of the state, but has lived in Central Kentucky for years now.

Her opponent is Todd Hollenbach from Louisville, scion of a well-known Democratic activist family. Not surprisingly, he disagrees with Wheeler on the need for the treasurer’s office and, in fact, wants to expand the duties of the office.

We’d be pleased to endorse Wheeler anyway, but her desire to do away with the position of state treasurer as an elective office matches our long-held position. We urge you to cast your vote for Melinda Wheeler on Nov. 6.