Editorial of October 19, 2023

Who Will You Choose?

Election Day is just 19 days away and early voting starts October 28. If you’re like us, your head is swimming with questions about the race for Otsego County clerk.

Experience and departmental knowledge versus energy and vision. Republican versus Democrat. Jennifer Basile versus MacGuire Benton.

We have opted not to endorse a candidate. Early on, it was our intention instead to focus on the individuals and their credentials, and let the public decide for itself. We began with a first look at the candidates in our editions of September 7. A set of 10 identical, very general questions was e-mailed to both, for them to answer and get people thinking about the choice that lies before them.

Both Basile and Benton appear to be upstanding citizens worthy of our support, with long ties to the community and a sincere desire to serve as Otsego County’s next clerk.

Basile has been working within the office for the last 14 years and bases her platform on her experience, her love for the job, and the fact that she has been appointed deputy county clerk for the last two terms by Kathy Sinnott Gardner, the outgoing clerk.

In contrast, Benton is campaigning on private sector business experience, previous public offices he has held, and—at just 25 years old—the energy and vision a fresh set of eyes may bring to the role.

Bright and early last Saturday, General Manager/Senior Editor Darla Youngs sat down with Basile and Benton separately, with a list of carefully crafted questions based on issues raised by supporters and detractors of both candidates, each of whom said they were headed to multiple public engagements later in the day. Those questions, and their answers, are published in part in this week’s “Freeman’s Journal” and “Hometown Oneonta” newspapers. The interviews in their entirety can be found on AllOtsego.com.

Not a lot has changed since the candidates answered that first set of 10 questions. Basile still contends that county clerk “is a position that requires a full working knowledge of the offices in order to effectively lead. This is a working role. You have to be able to answer customer questions, staff questions, attorney questions. There’s nothing that can prepare you for leading the county clerk and DMV offices other than having direct experience working in the office.” Benton still argues that “all of my professional experience, both in the private and the public sector, prepared me to do this job.” He says he is ready to do the job on day one and that he is “very familiar with state mandates and the requirements of this job.”

What last Saturday’s interviews will make clear, though, is that one of the candidates is an experienced politician and the other is not. One is a polished speaker and the other isn’t. One is comfortable in the public eye, and the other is more at home getting on with the task at hand.

Both candidates responded to some tough questions this time around and gave us, as voters, more information by which to make our final choice. It is up to each of us to read their answers, read between the lines, and decide what qualities are most important in our next Otsego County clerk.

Are we looking for experience and continuity? Or do we prefer a new perspective and a changing of the guard? Is it important that the outgoing clerk has backed her deputy and groomed her for the role? Or is this the opportunity to elect new leadership for an evolving office?

Sinnott-Gardner said in an e-mail, “Mr. Benton’s year and half in the Board of Elections absolutely does not qualify him for county clerk. Statements such as that, from him, show he has no grasp of what goes on in the County Clerk’s Office. The two departments are like comparing apples to oranges.”

One of Basile’s detractors, in a letter to the editor this week, was disappointed that she did not discuss her community service, or the importance of volunteerism, at a recent public gathering.

Do we cast our ballots for the seasoned clerk or the enthusiastic newcomer? What skills are most important in this role? Who is the best fit?

Pretty soon, we will all have to decide.