The public administrator in each county serves as a government guardian for elderly and mentally disabled people who can’t take care of themselves and have no heirs or friends who can or will do it. In the Democratic Party primary in Greene County next month, one question is whether Carol Wilson can overcome her own checkered past and be elected again.

After a name change, a party switch and a battle with a Greene County judge, Wilson is back, again running for public administrator.

“I have nothing to hide about who I am. I am very proud of who I am,” said Wilson.

In 2000, voters elected Wilson, whose last name then was Gross, as public administrator. She never took the position.

The problem was securing a bond to be able to manage millions of dollars in assets. She says Circuit Judge Calvin Holden set her bond too high.

“He set it at the point that he felt it would be hard for me to get,” said Wilson.

Wilson also had other problems. Court records detail a laundry list of credit problems, with civil suits ordering her to pay overdue bills. With scrutiny growing and on the advice of her attorneys, she withdrew before taking the office to which she was elected in 2000. That’s a decision that she now regrets.

“I feel I should've stayed strong. The voters of Greene County elected me to that spot. I think the county failed them. I failed them,” she said.

“It should be the concern of all residents that incapacitated folks are represented in a favorable manner,” said Laura Fabro, Wilson's primary opponent.

Fabro draws on experience from working as a deputy in the public administrator’s office. She won't comment on Wilson's past.

“I'm running a positive campaign. I believe my qualifications speak for themselves,” said Fabro.

Wilson is speaking out now to try to clear her name of financial mismanagement. She doesn't deny the credit problems but offers a reason.

In 1992, a patient at a residential care facility in Springfield that Wilson managed was murdered. She says her firing led to her credit crunch.

“It just shows I owed bills. I was almost destitute for awhile due to this,” she said.

Eight years later, she's changed her name.

“I am Carol Gross Wilson; I remarried,” she said.

She also changed from the Republican Party to the Democratic Party. She asks voters for a fresh look, something her new party won't even give her. In a rare move, the Greene County Democratic Party endorsed Fabro in the primary and doesn't even list Wilson on its Web site.

Four candidates are running in the Republican Party primary election for public administrator. They are: Becky Frakes, Tony Bleau, Terry Ozborn and David Yancey.