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Wedded to Civics

Politics may make strange bedfellows. But it's rare for bona fide bedfellows to be the top elected officials in overlapping local governments.

Politics may make strange bedfellows. But it's rare for bona fide bedfellows to be the top elected officials in overlapping local governments.

Yet that's the position in which Marjorie and Karl Sharp find themselves. She is president of the county council in Wayne County, Indiana, while her husband of 51 years serves as city council president in Richmond, the county seat.

"We always make a joke out of it," says Karl Sharp. "We draw a line down the middle of the family room." In fact, there is seldom political conflict between them or their jurisdictions. That's largely because their issues and responsibilities are different. The county runs the courts and criminal justice. The city, of late, has been revising its vicious-dog regulations and a sign ordinance. The two governments have cooperated on some issues, such as an economic development income tax and 911 emergency services.

Although the couple doesn't see any particular advantages or disadvantages to the situation, it does strike outside observers as unusual. At a recent meeting of the Indiana Association of Cities & Towns, one workshop focused on problems between city and county governments. Karl Sharp noted that the two get along pretty well in his jurisdiction, whereupon the county clerk explained the circumstances, eliciting looks of amusement.

The Sharps didn't start out as a political couple. She had a music career and he worked for an automotive parts business. But the lifelong Republicans were always interested in politics at the community level. At home, Karl Sharp notes, his wife controls the bully pulpit. "I'm not saying anything," Marjorie responds.

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