# Ethical State Secretaries?

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ethical-state-secretaries/394854>\
**Category:** Great Debates\
**Created:** [March 6, 2007, 9:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ethical-state-secretaries/394854 "2007-03-06T21:02:04Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 2\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![Punoqllads](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/d2c977/32.png) [@Punoqllads](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Punoqllads)\
**Post date:** [March 6, 2007, 9:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ethical-state-secretaries/394854/1 "2007-03-06T21:02:04Z")

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**Walloon** [asks](http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showpost.php?p=8328200&postcount=11):

> [@Walloon](#):
>
> If the Secretary of State had been a Democrat, would it be assumed ipso facto that he or she would be willing to do whatever was necessary to reduce votes for Bush?

Change “whatever was necessary” to “whatever was legally plausible” and yep, pretty much. Secretaries of State are wannabe Governors and need to move up in the ranks of their party. And heck, the free publicity in the news over the contraversy is just gravy, and is free, to boot.

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**Author:** ![Elendil\_s\_Heir](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/7cd45c/32.png) [@Elendil\_s\_Heir](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Elendil_s_Heir)\
**Post date:** [March 7, 2007, 9:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ethical-state-secretaries/394854/2 "2007-03-07T21:11:06Z")

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I’m not quite so cynical. Before the 2000 election, I don’t recall accusations being leveled against _any_ secretaries of state for trying to hurt the chances of a presidential candidate of a different party. I’m sure it happened, somewhere and sometime, I just don’t remember it being an issue. It really wasn’t until Katherine Harris in Florida and Ken Blackwell in Ohio found themselves in the headlines that the job’s potential for partisan mischief became clear to most people.

We have a new Democratic SecState here in Ohio, BTW, Jennifer Brunner, a former judge who is purposefully trying to be nonpartisan and above reproach in her administration of the office. Makes for quite a refreshing change - hope she’ll keep it up.