With a slim margin we fervently hope she maintains as the
remaining 3,000 ballots are counted over the next couple of days,
Candice Hooper Mancino has won the San Benito County District
Attorney seat outright. That, hopefully, will mean a measure of
sanity for San Benito County residents tired of the dirty tricks
and shenanigans of John Sarsfield.
With a slim margin we fervently hope she maintains as the remaining 3,000 ballots are counted over the next couple of days, Candice Hooper Mancino has won the San Benito County District Attorney seat outright. That, hopefully, will mean a measure of sanity for San Benito County residents tired of the dirty tricks and shenanigans of John Sarsfield.
Though if his first move following the stinging election loss is any indication – dumping the entire criminal caseload in Hooper Mancino’s lap stating he’s giving voters what they want – of what’s ahead, that sanity may not return until Sarsfield’s term finally ends on Dec. 31.
Sarsfield finished last with 22 percent of the vote which reminded us of Abraham Lincoln’s insightful statement: “You can fool some of the people all of the time, and all of the people some of the time, but you can not fool all of the people all of the time.”
Sarsfield’s reign of terror (or is it terrible reign) – four years of wasted time, misguided justice and politically-motivated attacks – has caught up with him. Time and time again, Sarsfield attempted to spin circumstances, confuse issues and pull the wool over the eyes of voters.
Ultimately, as usually happens, the public saw through his thin veil of deceit. Tuesday they pointed the blame for the last four years with their collective finger at the one place Sarsfield never would: directly at the district attorney’s own chest and exactly where it belonged.
From battling with the board of supervisors and plea bargaining violent crime suspects down to laughable charges to chasing shadows and wasting money in pursuit of Los Valientes, Sarsfield is finally reaping what he worked so hard to sow.
And Sarsfield has proven once again that a zebra can’t change its stripes.
Less than a day after the election he was at it again, this time announcing he was handing off all of the criminal caseload to Hooper Mancino.
“I have transferred the day-to-day criminal operations to Hooper. She has been handed the entire caseload,” Sarsfield said Wednesday. “I’m going to give the people what they want.”
With his waning tenure, Sarsfield should give the people of San Benito County what they really want: a district attorney who fights crime not political battles – an entity sorely lacking over the last few years. He has seven months left to gather his dignity, do his job and leave the office with some semblance of class. If he’s unwilling to conduct himself professionally sans the political pouting, then he should just resign immediately, hand Hooper Mancino his paycheck and let her begin repairing the terrible damage he’s done.
“A change is just what this county needs when it comes to the district attorney,” Supervisor Anthony Botelho said Wednesday. “We still need to deal with Mr. Sarsfield and all I can hope is that he spends his last seven months making our streets safer instead of engaging in the political vindictiveness that has marked his tenure in office.”
We truly hope so too, but we don’t expect it – not from John Sarsfield.
