Doing my customary research before elections, I came across Cliff Newell's campaign website which is here.
"I care about this community and your safety is my business."
"Our community continues to be one of the safest places to live in California, and in recent years we have seen a decrease in the severity of crime. However, public safety requires constant vigilance and a proactive approach through prevention as well as prosecution. I have spent the last seven years working to create an office that emulates the qualities of 'integrity, patience, and courage...doing what's right...making decisions based on facts and the law...knowing which criminals to target.'"
"We have taken an especially strong stance against the criminal activities that threaten the quality of life in our community. A solid working relationship with law enforcement remains critical to the success of the office. Over the last seven years, cooperation, communication and a team approach toward solving crimes and prosecuting criminals, has enhanced the effectiveness of law enforcement in Nevada County. We continue to implement programs to decrease recidivism, increase public safety, and address the 'revolving door' within the population of the County Jail system."
"Despite unprecedented economic conditions and drastic budget reductions, I have efficiently operated the District Attorney's office within budget every year. I have decreased full-time staffing levels, and created an office that does 'more with less.' The District Attorney's Office attorneys and staff continue to be good stewards of public funds by working hard and working smart. I will continue to squeeze every efficiency out of existing resources while maintaining a high level of public safety."
Cliff continues on the website which is full of relevant information.
Unfortunately as this race in connection with public safety plays out, I anticipate much irrelevant vitriol. It is abundantly clear that when a challenger takes on an incumbent, such challenger needs to convince people that voted for the incumbent once that they were wrong. The challenger needs to focus on the mis-steps of the incumbent and point out why the voters need to change.
The problem in this race is that the challenger and his supporters are creating mis-steps where there are none through rhetoric and complete misrepresentations. Recently I received an email from a friend who used to work in the DA's office but is no longer employed there. The letter represented a personal axe ginding and was devoid of truthful facts. I was very disappointed, because I thought that this person was better than that.
Then the challenger creates a mis-step by Mr. Newell. The challenger "told his supporters that the DA’s office budget has shrunk in recent years, pointing the finger at Newell for his inability to extract more money from the board of supervisors." Ummm...Cliff Newell has done a great job of prosecuting criminals on a limited budget due to economic stagnation and that is a bad thing?
The challenger announced that he was endorsed by an employees' union whose membership is getting less money, because of the same tight county budgets with Newel is efficiently operating. Sounds like electing the challenger means bloated budgets, but at least the employees' union will be happy.
Cliff Newell (and Anna Ferguson for that matter) run a tight ship in our district attorney's office, and it ruffles the feathers of those who think the county does not spend enough money and resent that the county is responsibly cutting spending.
The bottom line is this. Cliff Newell get criminals prosecuted. Cliff Newell gets them put in jail, and he does it under budget. These are the characteristic that Nevada County citizens want in a district attorney, and we are fortunate enough to already have them in office. As such, I urge everyone to vote for Cliff Newell for District Attorney.
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