McCroskey stepping down? Not so fast

The rumors are picking up again in the old Death Star that the embattled Joy McCroskey, Knox County’s criminal court clerk, is contemplating stepping down from office or even not running for re-election.

This comes after a robo call to voters last week that asked residents who they would pick in the upcoming race: McCroskey or Mike Hammond, a county commissioner who plans to run for the seat.

(Steve Williams, a local attorney who also has picked up a nominating petition, was not a choice in the survey.)

Awhile back, when we first broke the story about the many of the problems in McCroskey’s office, she did ask at least one employee whether she should step down. That person told her no.

My guess is that she won’t now, either. McCroskey can be pretty defiant, so I don’t expect her to give up so easily. Plus, she's still got plenty of supporters and there's a lot of folks out there who will vote for her if only to vote against Hammond. (Also, Williams might take votes away from Hammond, and it's the top vote-getter - you don't need "50 plus 1" - in the Mayor Republican Primary who moves on to the August General Election.)

Another rumor is that she won’t turn in her petition by the Feb. 20 due date, a move that would essentially signal her resignation (although she’d still serve until the end of August).

I doubt even that happens.

We’ll see. Stranger things happen in that building.