Perry Lamb aims to run as independent for commission
Perry Lamb, a surgical first assistant at Erlanger hospital, has paid the money necessary to run as an independent candidate for Walker County commissioner.
Lamb turned in his qualifying fee of $3,412 to the county’s elections office Thursday morning. The payment represents 3 percent of the commissioner’s salary and is a necessary step to run for office.
He now has until July 12 to give the elections office a nomination petition with signatures from 1,640 registered voters: 5 percent of the total active voters during the 2012 election. Lamb said he has already surpassed that figure.
If Lamb qualifies, he will face Republican candidate Shannon Whitfield and incumbent Bebe Heiskell in the general election this November. Whitfield defeated Mike Peardon with about 75 percent of the vote in the GOP primary on May 24.
Lamb said he did not want to be tied to a political faction during this election.
Heiskell is also running as an independent. She said in a statement earlier this year that she felt the local Republican Party leans too far right for her.
Matt Williamson, the chairman of the party, said the two independent candidates have leveled conflicting criticisms. “Bebe disagrees with [Lamb],” Williamson said. “She feels like it’s the Republican Party who grew too conservative for her. I disagree with that. But that’s just one area where Bebe can’t be right and Perry Lamb can’t be right at the same time.”
If elected, Lamb said, he will hire auditors to examine all of the county’s financials. The county is required to have an audit performed every year, but Lamb believes county officials have not turned over all of the necessary paperwork and reports to show its current financial standing.
Lamb also wants to cut all departments by 10 percent, and he plans to reduce the commissioner’s annual salary from about $110,000 to about $99,000.
Lamb said he will ask state representatives to pass a resolution allowing voters to decide in 2018 whether to shift the county’s form of government to a board of commissioners. In May, 75 percent of voters said in a non-binding referendum that they want such a change.
Whitfield announced in June that he also wants the state Legislature to push for a vote on the issue in 2018. Heiskell told the Times Free Press in May that she also supported the change if that’s what most voters want, though she later walked back her stance while talking to a radio station in LaFayette.
Contact Tyler Jett at 423-7576476 or at tjett@timesfreepress.com. Follow him on Twitter @LetsJett.