opinion

What we can learn from Karen Spranger

To the relief of her constituents, the disappointment of those who crave spectacle, and the surprise of absolutely no one who witnessed her short, unhappy political career, Karen Spranger's tenure as Macomb County Clerk is over.

A circuit court judge sent Spranger packing this week after ruling that she was not living in Macomb when she filed to run for the clerk's post in 2016, and had therefore failed to meet the single eligibility requirement set out in the county charter.

Since she was ineligible to run in the first place, Judge Daniel Kelly reasoned, Spranger could not continue to serve in the clerk's post.

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It's almost as if her troubled, truncated term never happened — if you overlook the time she tried to sabotage an office move by hiding storage crates in the dead of night, the day she drove her county car into the back bumper of a constituent's vehicle, the multiple lawsuits filed against her, and the criminal investigation triggered by an allegation that she kicked one of her subordinates.

As an officer for the union that represents clerk's office employees dead-panned to Free Press reporter Christina Hall after Spranger's expulsion: "It's been a difficult 15 months for everybody."

May the farce be with you

But before we exile Spranger to the annals of political folly to which such world-class screw-ups as ex-state Sen. David Jaye and star-crossed state representatives Cindy Gamrat and Todd Courser preceded her, we should reflect for a moment on the misguided populist impulse that catapulted her, however briefly, on to Michigan's political stage.

Spranger was elected, after all, by the same Macomb County voters who chose Donald Trump. Like Trump's discontented army, hers was a constituency disgusted with the status quo and in search of Something Completely Different.

It wasn't a mandate, exactly; Spranger won the November 2016 general election by just 635 votes, a razor-thin margin that nevertheless doubled her 312-vote advantage in the sparsely attended August primary.

Some of those who were attracted by Spranger's outsider status might have hesitated if they'd appreciated just how honestly she'd come by it. Although she claimed a diverse array of job and volunteer experience, the record generated in Macomb County's successful lawsuit to disqualify her suggests that she rarely held gainful employment before ascending to the $107,000-a-year clerk's post. Her experience as a political activist was similarly thin, peaking with her quixotic crusade against smart utility meters, which she suspected of emitting harmful radio waves.

She was, in sum, a poster child for political inexperience — the logical consummation of her populist supporters' infatuation with rank amateurs.

Getting what they paid for

In what other field is professionalism considered so disqualifying? No patient rejects a surgeon because she's performed the prescribed procedure too often, or too successfully, in the past. No homeowner would hire a landscaping service if he knew none of its employees had ever never wielded a lawnmower, hedge-trimmer or rake.

But let a candidate who has never held political office, supervised a staff, or (so far as anyone can tell) managed a checking account announce her availability to oversee a public agency hundreds of thousands of residents rely on, and some voters can't wait to hand her the keys.

Give us a fresh approach! Clear the deadwood! Drain the swamp!

What could possibly go wrong?

Well, now we know, don't we? And whatever lasting damage Spranger may have wrought, she deserves props for the unforgettable civics lesson she gave us.

The clerk's office will recover — perhaps even in time for the next statewide primary in August. That gives Macomb County voters plenty of time to think about the wisdom of hiring future candidates on the strength of their blank resumes.

Contact Brian Dickerson: bdickerson@freepress.com