News Summary

Speaking of fish tales: Montgomery County Commissioner Chuck Curran is running a television commercial saying voters shouldn't elect Dan Foley because he can't balance his checkbook.

Where the heck did they get that?

Turns out that in 1996, Foley wrote a short story for the now-defunct Northern Michigan Journal titled, The Fish Famine. The low-budget, folksy, promotional online newspaper for Northern Michigan described Foley as living in Dayton and added, "Dan works as an assistant treasurer for Montgomery County, and says: 'I'm probably the only assistant treasurer who can't balance his own checkbook.' "

A decade later, Foley's self-deprecation is being used against him.

For his part, Foley has been running ads against Curran saying that, under the long-time commissioner's watch, the community has lost 22,000 jobs. Of course, it's ridiculous to saddle Curran with the decline of manufacturing.

But at least give Foley credit for not subtly linking Curran to child molesters. (Curran's ad opens by saying that voters wouldn't hire an inexperienced plumber or go to a restaurant where the chef couldn't cook, and finishes the series with, "You wouldn't hire a baby sitter who didn't look quite right." A very creepy man is the backdrop.)

This contest has to have been the ad men's worst nightmare. If you know Dan Foley, if you know Chuck Curran, then you know they both are choir boys extraordinaire. They drive the speed limit and always obeyed their mothers. Finding dirt on either one is not easy — unless you're willing to lie.

But there is a difference between Foley and Curran. After more than two decades on the county commission, Curran can't point to a major achievement that he personally owns, one that he single-mindedly directed and that but for his efforts wouldn't have happened. He listens well, he goes to every meeting, but he doesn't execute.

He talks about Montgomery County's tax-sharing plan, called ED/GE, but that wasn't his baby. He talks about the Job Center, but that wasn't his idea. He credits himself with supporting human services, but who hasn't?

When business leaders, elected officials or staff have ideas that need drivers, they don't go to Curran. They just assume that if there isn't too much controversy, he will jump on the bus.

Though he talks more softly than Curran and stands shorter, Foley doesn't wait for people to hand him an issue. He's developed a reputation for spotting problems and moving.

That stems largely from the way he has used his clerk of courts job to create a cross-jurisdictional database that gives police, probation officers and judges a more complete criminal history of offenders. The information also ensures that people who should be moved from the county jail to prison are transported quickly (thereby saving the county money).

The system also has been important in domestic-violence cases. That's one situation where it's particularly critical to know not just about convictions, but about previous arrests, dismissed charges and reduced charges. These offenders ratchet up their violence, and ignorance of the past can get women killed.

Creating a tracking system that most people who watch cop shows think already exists is hardly sexy. But Foley won the respect of myriad people in the trenches who credit him with taking on a devilish project that required not just turf-conscious people, but also computer systems, to talk to each other. They saw stick-to-it energy and passion.

And Foley achieved something from an elective perch that, heretofore, was perceived as a nothing office.

Dayton is a small big town, where word gets around about who's doing the heavy lifting when it comes to fixing things and who's just warming their seats. So it hasn't taken long for Foley to be pegged as a young comer whose talents should be put to a higher and better use than in the clerk's office.

That's really the long and short story of how a nice guy like Chuck Curran found himself being challenged this year — and why he could be defeated.

Curran hasn't done anything wrong. He just hasn't been good enough.

After six four-year terms, he's had his turn.

Ellen Belcher is editor of the

Dayton Daily News

editorial pages. Her telephone number is 225-2286; her e-mail address is ebelcher@Dayton

DailyNews.com.