Texas candidate: Elect me and I won’t serve

updated 6:16 p.m. ET Jan. 22, 2008

SAN ANTONIO - A candidate for Kerr County treasurer is making a single campaign promise: Elect me and I won't serve. Ed Hamilton, 77, is challenging incumbent Treasurer Mindy Williams for the Republican nomination during the March 4 election. No Democrats are seeking the office.

He said the job is redundant and costing the county money it doesn't need to spend. The duties should be assigned to another county office, Hamilton said.

"I don't plan to do the job," he said. "I won't accept a paycheck."

Hamilton said if elected, he would hand the duties to someone else and petition state officials for a referendum on a constitutional amendment that would allow any county to eliminate the treasurer position if it chooses.

Williams, who was appointed last spring to the $46,000-a-year post, said the job shouldn't be eliminated. It provides accountability on the county's spending, a check and balance that is "essential to county government."

Hamilton says "check and balance" is "a euphemism for duplication of effort."

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