On May 21, The Whidbey News Times published a remarkable interview with candidate for Kitsap County Auditor (and former Island County commissioner) Kelly Emerson. In it, Emerson said of her frustrations as Island County Commissioner: “Frankly, it was just a slow process to have any reward. It took so long to make even the most minor change”. Emerson’s words are telling. They reveal an impatient person in a job requiring extraordinary patience. They reveal a person emotionally unready to deal gracefully with adversity. They reveal a person who hasn’t yet learned that public service, done right, is its own reward.

Simply put, Emerson was temperamentally and intellectually unfit to carry out the job we elected her to do. It’s painful to say, but the most creditable thing she did in office was to abandon it.

The job of auditor involves, among other duties, supervising a team responsible for counting and tabulating your votes in strict compliance with state code. It demands a person capable of sustained, scrupulous, military-grade attention to detail. It calls for a person you know and can trust. My advice to Kitsap County is to elect a candidate who is truly one of your own.

Paul Thompson | Langley