But in the case of Melinda Wheeler, that's not true. Wheeler is a republican candidate for state treasurer. She retired from her job as the head of the Kentucky Administrative Office of the Courts to run for statewide office. And it's the job she did, or didn't do, at A.O.C. that's dealt a blow to her campaign. A panel that investigated the erroneous destruction of thousands of Jefferson County court records by A.O.C. has issued a scathing report, blaming the "indifference, inexperience, intransigence and ineptness" of A.O.C. staff for the mistake, which could negatively impact hundreds of criminal cases, according to the Jefferson County commonwealth's attorney. Not only did the commission report blast A.O.C. in general, it blasted Wheeler specifically, saying she was hell bent on carrying out her agency's records destruction policy despite repeated warnings from Jefferson County court officials. And it says Ed Crockett, who oversaw some of the operation, didn't understand the need to keep the old criminal records and how they might be needed by other agencies, like prosecutors and police. Crockett is Wheeler's husband. The report implies that their relationship played a role in the mistake.

Wheeler told the Courier-Journal that the report contained inaccuracies, omissions and distorted the work by her and her staff. Wheeler says the investigative panel, led by court of appeals judge Tom Wine, was out to make A.O.C. a scapegoat.
Fair or not, the report clearly damages Wheeler's ability to tell voters she did a great job running one state agency and she should be elected to run another. And for those in the Jefferson County legal community who worried that Chief Justice Joseph Lambert appointed judge Wine so he could provide a white wash for the agency Lambert oversees (A.O.C.), I guess those worries were unfounded.