If there’s anything San Benito County residents can be assured
of come a political election, it’s sparks and drama with a little
mudslinging thrown in. But with this year’s district attorney
primary election in June and the candidates already blazing a
campaign trail, we have but one plea to those vying for the
county’s top law enforcement spot: Keep it clean. Please.
If there’s anything San Benito County residents can be assured of come a political election, it’s sparks and drama with a little mudslinging thrown in. But with this year’s district attorney primary election in June and the candidates already blazing a campaign trail, we have but one plea to those vying for the county’s top law enforcement spot: Keep it clean. Please.
That may be a naive plea some would say better suited for the comics page but it is an honest concern. The melee that accompanied the 2002 district attorney’s race never really ended and has poisoned the position for nearly four years with name calling, finger pointing and downright childish antics better left on the playground.
Politics get dirty and mudslinging is par for the course, but San Benito County residents deserve better than the rancor that has emanated from the players surrounding the district attorney’s office.
An honest debate on the issues, without wallowing in the politics of personal destruction, would be refreshing and best serve the voters who have an important decision to make regarding the direction of our county.
While we would hope the three candidates running would have learned a thing or two about competing for political office since the last race – they are, after all, the same three who battled it out in 2002 – old habits die hard. And in San Benito County, apparently, they don’t just die they have to be butchered, burned and buried before they really go away.
So to the candidates – defense attorney Arthur Cantu, Deputy District Attorney Candice Hooper and District Attorney John Sarsfield – we say this: If you say you’re not going to trash your opponent to anyone who will listen, send out information surreptitiously through the mail or Internet, or make outlandish statements to the local media, mean it. Don’t say one thing and turn around and do another.
Instead of winning, or losing for that matter, on nasty tricks and name calling, win on ability, integrity and judgment. Those are the qualities we want in a district attorney, not who can shovel the most verbal garbage to residents and the news media the fastest.
That doesn’t put criminals in jail or make the streets of San Benito County safer, and every resident of this county deserves someone who’s No. 1 priority is just that.
