Bizarre Hardesty Ad Rehashes Hamburg Troubles

Just when you think relations among Hamburg Township Republicans can't get any more bizarre, this happens.

An apparent supporter of Township Clerk Joanna Hardesty has begun running ads on the Livingston Press and Argus website quoting Ronald Reagan and rehashing the troubles on the township board that led to the defeat of incumbents in the August primary.

Addressed to "Livingston Reagan Republicans," the first segment of the website ad blames local Republican Party leadership and/or Rick and Cindy Pine, township supervisor defeated in the primary, for stirring up trouble on the Hamburg board. Three more segments are promised.

The details of the whole Hamburg Township situation are too messy to go into here. Sort of like the details of a really dysfunctional family. Hardesty is now running a long-shot write-in campaign against Matt Skiba, a Republican so unimpressive that even the Livingston Press and Argus could not endorse him, and Democrat Debby Buckland.

The only way to end this long-running soap opera is to break up the Republican gang on the township board and replace some of them with people who care about the community more than about stabbing each other in the back.

Hamburg Township voters should put some Democrats on the board -- Debby Buckland (clerk), Linda Taylor (treasurer), and Shannon Piper (trustee) -- to babysit with the Republicans and make sure the work gets done.