Saturday, August 11, 2007

Just for fun

There's a race in Seattle that's interesting - why it's phrased as Republican v Democrat is beyond me, political affiliation shouldn't matter in a DA's race. Seattle Post-Intelligencer Democrats vie for prosecutor's seat

After 59 years of Republican prosecuting attorneys of Democrat-leaning King County, state and local Democratic Party leaders are hungry to win this high-profile office that rarely offers a competitive race...

...The previous DA, Norm Maleng, was a "prosecutor for 28 years until he died May 24. Maleng was widely regarded as fair-minded and someone who kept the office free of politics. He typically was re-elected easily with bipartisan support...

...Of the candidates Sherman also has raised more money -- approximately $43,000 to Scully's $23,000, according to their campaign finance reports. Satterberg, unopposed for the Republican nomination has raised $117,000... (Dan Satterberg, (was) Maleng's chief of staff for 17 years, is now the interim prosecutor.)

...Each claims to have a resume giving him unique qualifications:

Sherman, 39, calls himself the only "courtroom prosecutor" in the race since neither other candidate now takes cases to trial. To underscore that experience, he promises to personally prosecute one case a year if elected. He says he had management experience in the Clinton administration before going to law school, as co-leader of a reorganization plan that reduced costs in the office of the interior secretary by about $10 million a year.

Sherman most recently prosecuted cases in the domestic violence unit and previously worked in the prosecutor's filing and charging unit, and as a negotiator in the early plea unit. He estimates he has tried 40 criminal cases. He previously was an associate in a Seattle law firm.

Scully, 34, prosecuted misdemeanor and traffic cases in District Court, then prosecuted juvenile court cases and then worked in the prosecutor's appellate unit, followed by stints working in the Sheriff's Office on criminal-case development and prosecuting drug cases, adult felonies and fraud cases. He said he took 30 to 40 cases to trial.

Scully was a United Nations war crimes prosecutor at The Hague, the Netherlands, for 15 months in 2005 and 2006, prosecuting Serbs accused of mass killings in Kosovo. Since November he has been legal director of Futurewise, a land-use conservation organization, arguing cases before the Puget Sound Growth Management Hearings Board.

Sherman has called for placing greater emphasis on protecting the most vulnerable crime victims, such as victims of domestic violence, elder abuse and elder fraud. Scully has promised greater emphasis on gang violence and fraud. He thinks there have been "profound inequalities" in the application of the death penalty.

However, while Scully as well as Sherman have said they have policy problems with the death penalty, especially in light of convictions later overturned by DNA evidence, both say they wouldn't rule out using it and would decide its application on a case-by-case basis.

Scully wants to steer more drug cases into drug court to replace jail time with close supervision and drug testing, which he said are more effective. He also would institute rotating senior deputy prosecutors through District Court to help junior deputies with complex cases..."


Comments on the article agree: Why is this a partisan race anyway? Why take an office that has not fallen into the political bullcrap this country is finding itself deeper and deeper in and try to make it more political. Do the research folks - there is only one guy that should be running this office from amoung these candidates, and he's already doing the job. Don't replace him just because he doesn't have a "D" after his name.

5 comments:

  1. This is a bit off topic but nonetheless should have Rose pretty upset.


    What's this?
    Deputy district attorney moving on to private practice
    Chris Durant/The Times-Standard
    Article Launched: 08/12/2007 04:15:50 AM PDT

    A deputy district attorney is leaving the office this month to move into private practice in Arcata.

    Jeffrey Schwartz said the motivation for the move is to have more flexibility in his schedule to spend time with his family.

    ”You can't do it with this job,” Schwartz said.

    Before coming to Humboldt County in 2005, he was a defense attorney in the San Francisco area.

    He has been practicing law for about 20 years.

    ”I'm going to set up a private practice and go out on my own,” Schwartz said.

    He said he'll probably continue practicing criminal law but would like try out other specialties.

    He has a 2-year-old son and having the flexibility to spend more time with him is the reason for the career change, Schwartz said.

    He said if all goes well, his practice in Arcata will start in September.

    Chris Durant can be reached at 441-0506 or my e-mailing cdurant@times-standard.com

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  2. "Why is this a partisan race anyway?"

    Personally,I wish we'd do away with political parties all together.Talk about groups which abuse the constitution and societies individuality.And when one doesn't toe the line of their party,watch out.Look at the flack that my buddy Richard Marks took for supporting Virginia Bass.
    It really pisses me off that we have these primary elections in which me as a decline to state pay taxes to support an election for parties which I don't belong to or support.Political parties need to pay for their own primaries.
    Hey I'm certainly not against groups of people binding together for their perspective just causes,but the political manipulation that can come out of a party is totally unjust especially when the system is dominated by 2 major parties.

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  3. There are lots of pros and cons, and it is a complicated subject that is difficult to reduce to a simple "fix" - I realize that, and with that caveat, mresquan, here we are in 100% agreement. Partisan politics could destroy this country.

    If I could be King for a day, I would make politicians check their party affiliation at the door. They would not be allowed to participate in party caucuses or fundraising during their tenure. Once elected, they represent all the people, all the parties. I would also require that major offices, like president and governor institute a minimum of a one year carry over, where an outgoing president or governor stays on in an advisory capacity to the incoming guy, so as to provide unity and continuity in the governing process.

    It appears Washington's system is different from ours - if the DA's Office is a partisan race with one Republican and one Democrat emerging from the primary to compete in the general election. That's a shame if it is true. If it isn't, then you really have to ask why this is a partisan issue.

    On the flip side, they have a remarkably stable DAs office, and it looks like they have three good candidates. I would worry a bit about the guy who is for sloughing offenders off into drug court, that's what we're seeing here.

    And after seeing what happened here, I'd be voting for stability. Not change.

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  4. Just a thought Rose...with yougofree gone, maybe you will finally get your CAST stats that show he did absolutely nothing during the time we paid for him to kiss Paul's arse.

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