Primary election season is well underway as folks do their very best to represent their political parties the November elections.

Sadly, there are candidates who are term-limited public officials running for a different office simply because they will be unemployed come January. Back in 2006, a sitting Democratic Party county commissioner who had two years left on his final term in that office decided to run for county treasurer because he wanted to keep his county paycheck just a bit longer than two years, and it worked! Now we have a term-limited county clerk running for county treasurer in the Democratic Party primary against the sitting Democratic Party county treasurer, who by most accounts is doing a stellar job.

Why, then, would a fellow Democrat run against a high-performing incumbent from the same party? Shouldn’t that only be happening if the incumbent wasn’t doing the job properly?

Term limits were put in place by the voters to ensure that elected offices did not become lifelong jobs. It appears that Kathleen Neel would like to get around the will of the voters to keep her county paycheck for at least four more years. Ryne Scholl is a high-performing and dedicated county treasurer who has more than earned a shot at four more years in that office. He should not be replaced by Ms. Neel simply because she’ll need a job. There are plenty of other open positions available around the county that aren’t elected offices.