Wednesday, April 12, 2006

The Lockyer Endorsement

Here's another one of those empty campaign tactics the Gallegos campaign is using. About the only thing we keep hearing from them is that Gallegos represents the people and the continued mention that crime is at it's lowest level in the last so many years.

This, despite the fact that a District Attorney has little, if anything, to do with how much crime takes place in a community and every candidate likes to throw out the represents the people line.

Now we see the usual campaign stunt of getting someone who probably wouldn't recognize Gallegos if he saw him on the street, giving him a glowing endorsement. I think we all know how this came about:

Some of the local Democrats contacted the State Attorney General's office or, more likely, went through their channels at the state level to get a fellow Democrat in higher office to endorse their pet candidate.

I can't just pick on the Gallegos campaign for doing that, as it's a common tactic used in nearly every campaign. Doesn't really mean much in the real world, as far as how good the candidate in question really is.

It would be nice if the Gallegos campaign could come up with something a little more meaningful to run their campaign on because, so far, they haven't got anything.



37 Comments:

At 10:30 AM, Anonymous Anonymous said...

Fred, unfortunately, there is nothing meaningful to campaign on. Hiring Jim Jones's second in command, losing the case you file to try to national attention, losing a high profile case against a political enemy for misconduct, losing experienced employees, and being known as a no show to meetings is nothing to brag about.
Also, they can't have the puppet speak without a vantriloquist because people just might figure out that the brain wattage is a little low. No bragging rights for that either.

 
At 11:13 AM, Anonymous Anonymous said...

That says it all 10:30. Perhaps the HCDCC and Berg should do their homework before opening their mouths and taking a position on this. Oh but its the same puppeteer.

And I'd like to see the "endorsement" myself. Just saying kudos for statitics is pretty empty.

I agree with why the handlers want to keep the discussion off of the issues given what you pointed out.

What do you think Fred?

 
At 11:27 AM, Blogger Fred Mangels said...

I agree. It seems pretty shameless to me how they're blindly backing Gallegos without any substantial reason for doing so.

It also seems to me the Dikeman folks have the only issue of substance on their side: What's happened to all the various programs within the DA's office during Gallegos' first term. That, and the large personnel turnover.

Without trying to take one side or the other, at least right now, it seems to me those are the issues in the race. As it stands now, Dikeman has the lead with that one. Not saying that will give Dikeman a win, though.

Slogans like "he represents the people" and endorsements like Lockyer's, though meaningless, seem to sway some people- especially ones that pay little attention to the issues 360 days out of the year.

No way of telling how successful such tactics will be until the counting is done.

 
At 11:37 AM, Anonymous Anonymous said...

I want Terry Farmer back

 
At 12:48 PM, Anonymous Anonymous said...

Are you guys feeling a little bitter? You sure sound like it.

 
At 1:42 PM, Anonymous Anonymous said...

Brainlessness is rapant on this blog. If you actually took the time to know Paul you would realize that he has a brain and is passionate about his job. He is trying to do the best with a meager budget provided by the County. Someone please tell my Dikeman would do better.

 
At 1:54 PM, Anonymous Anonymous said...

Maybe the Coalition For Jobs should reform,and start running attack ads against Paul.I mean he is after all the entire problem behind the layoffs,right?Too bad nobody from here had anything to do with that group though,the commercials just magically appearedBut then again, it's not really necessary when your own police department will waste gobs of money on ads and commercials to try to get you recalled.

 
At 1:58 PM, Anonymous Anonymous said...

And he is the reason all of our children are moving elsewhere too.

 
At 2:03 PM, Blogger ΛΕΟΝΙΔΑΣ said...

If you ask any reputable attorney in Humboldt County they will tell you that that the DA's office is FUBAR. It took them 4 months to decide what to file on me for placing warning devices on my ranch to keep the local arsonist/crackhead at bay and couldn't even get to trial on him, an ex felon caught red handed with a gun which he had just fired at me on my own property with a valid restrainig order against him. My case came up 9 months after the sheriff's report and they suddenly discovered that the "evidence" proved I was innocent of the charge. The reason they filed the case on me in the first place was that they didn't believe I would travel 2300 miles to appear and would just cop a plea to a misdemeanor with "community service" (another win for them). Wrong! Gallegos is more interested in surfing and playing touchey feely with the local hippies than running the DA's office. He will be a shoo-in for re election.

ΜΟΛΩΝ ΛΑΒΕ

 
At 2:07 PM, Blogger Fred Mangels said...

mresquan said, "Maybe the Coalition For Jobs should reform,and start running attack ads against Paul".

I found it interesting, in talking to another gardener about those ads: She told me she heard those ads were put up by the Salzman folks as kind of a reverse psychology thing: Everyone would be so turned of by them, they'd vote for Kerrigan.

Sounds like a good plan but seems a bit far fetched to me. Stranger things have been known to happen in politics, though.

BTW, Mark (and others), I really don't understand how touchy you all are about Gallegos. The guy's got the big money behind him, along with a fairly potent political machine. Why so touchy?

 
At 2:27 PM, Anonymous Anonymous said...

Isn't that what blogging is all about?

 
At 3:52 PM, Anonymous Anonymous said...

Paul personally tried a case in which a person beat a 4 month old baby native american family relative who was left blind and crippled. He put the person behind bars for 11 years out of a max potential of 12. That is not lip service but job performance. He doesn't brag about things like that. He just does his job. People who are reading these blogs probably don't remember that Terry Farmer had much more staff and did not try cases himself. Paul will have our family vote.

 
At 8:55 PM, Blogger Rose said...

Who prepped the case anon 3:52?

 
At 1:05 AM, Blogger Rose said...

No discussion of shadow groups is complete without addressing the number one offender, Richard Salzman's so-called Alliance for Ethical Business. It was and is a sham, no one knows who was behind it, how much money they had, how much money they raised, how much money they spent, how they spent it... How much of it was spent on Paul Gallegos' behalf? What campaign materials were purchased for Paul with Alliance for Ethical Business money? How were they accounted for? How were they reported to the FPPC? WERE they reported to the FPPC? Did any of it show up on his campaign disclosure forms?

All of the things the FPPC rules are there for, and all of you who are so adamant about truth in voting look the other way when it is someone you see as "your" guy.

You want voter reform, mresquan? Start there. Voting machines don't make a damn bit of difference.

 
At 8:28 AM, Anonymous Anonymous said...

Rose: Don't know that. Case Humboldt vs. Chris Cortopassi

 
At 10:08 AM, Anonymous Anonymous said...

It's still less disgusting then seeing Harmony Groves endorse Phil Angelides!

 
At 10:21 AM, Anonymous Anonymous said...

Fred,why didn't Chris"Justice Served"Crawford look into that?Wasn't it Patty Berg who wanted to lead an investigation into it?Can't really remember right now what exactly happened there,I just threw that rumor away when I heard it,since team Rex didn't want to bother with it.
Let's see hand Paul all the blame for the problems,but god forbid he defends himself for the good things that have happened,those have nothing to do with him.I'm not touchy pro-Paul,but at least be fair.Maybe we should to the good old days when police chiefs were embezzling money right under the D.A.'s nose,and illegal pot raids were commonplace.Worth was around then,was he not? Paul wasn't.And how many unsolved murder cases did Terry Farmer leave for Paul?If Worth wins and closes his eyes and ears to any potential misdeeds by his favored councilmembers, or Palco,he'll do just fine.

 
At 10:39 AM, Anonymous Anonymous said...

By the way,the individual fronting for the Coalition For Jobs was attorney Wayne Ordos from Sacramento. He told me that he has a legal right to withhold any information about others involved with this "supposed" group when I contacted him a couple weeks after the election.

 
At 11:31 AM, Anonymous Anonymous said...

Back to you 8:28 - who prepped the case for him?

 
At 1:06 PM, Anonymous Anonymous said...

Once again: Someone please tell me why Dikeman would do better?

Is it that difficult to define Wirth's worth without without talking about Paul?

 
At 1:59 PM, Blogger Fred Mangels said...

mresquan writes, "Wasn't it Patty Berg who wanted to lead an investigation into it?Can't really remember right now what exactly happened there".

Seems to me she did say something about that. I've lost track of all that happened with that.

esquan also wrote: "I'm not touchy pro-Paul,but at least be fair.".

I figure I'm being fair. And let's keep in mind, I didn't vote for either Farmer or Gallegos (or Lewis or Phillp) first time around but voted NO on the recall.

 
At 2:32 PM, Anonymous Anonymous said...

1:06, here's your answer:

1. Worth is smart. (Not Paul's strong suit.)
2. Worth has integrity. (Not something Paul is known for in the legal community.)
3. Worth has 25 years of experience as a DA. (Unless you believe it's better to start at the top, as Paul did, and then try to learn the job.)
4. Worth is respected by court staff, law enforcement and other lawyers.
5. Worth is a prosecutor because that it is the career he loves; he's not doing it to gain publicity for some future political race.

 
At 7:42 PM, Anonymous Anonymous said...

1. Thats subjective so we hae to through this one out.
2. Ditto.
3. Okay. That sounds good. What has he accomplished?
4. You have heard this from the sources correct?
5. This one is good. But tell me how you know about Paul's future.

 
At 1:05 PM, Anonymous Anonymous said...

(yawn)

 
At 1:49 PM, Anonymous Anonymous said...

take a nap

 
At 3:10 PM, Anonymous Anonymous said...

Did I miss Worth's "Whine" social today? I have heard enough. Paul gets my vote.

 
At 11:30 PM, Blogger Rose said...

This one's for mresquan at 10:21
Just think Palco and Debi August. Bet Paul's handlers won't be posting this one on his site. http://www.northcoastjournal.com/022102/elect0221.html

"...So what are these issues? Top on Gallegos' list is the proliferation of "garbage cases," small-time crimes and overcharged cases that he said are clogging up the court system.

Garbage cases, said Gallegos, come in two forms: Cases that would lose if actually brought to trial and cases that are overcharged for the crimes committed. The idea behind filing both kinds of garbage, he said, is to get the defendant to plead guilty, netting a conviction without having to go into court.

"Probably 95 percent of the cases that are filed plead guilty. In fact, there are a lot of cases that are filed on the assumption they will plead guilty, because of the time and expense involved in defending them. But these cases shouldn't even be filed in the first place, because if they were challenged, they would lose," Gallegos said. Better yet: If they weren't filed at all, it would save the county time and money...."

 
At 10:38 AM, Anonymous Anonymous said...

Hasn't crime been going down steadily since the three strikes law was passed?

 
At 11:25 AM, Anonymous Anonymous said...

Yep - and the AG stats show it going down EVERY YEAR through out the state since 1990.

Why did it go up here in 2004 - up from 2003?

How are criminal filings up and crime down?

How are prison committments up and crime down?

If it walks, flies and quacks like a duck - its a duck.

Gallegos is a lame duck with this empty rhetoric

 
At 9:38 PM, Anonymous Anonymous said...

Spin it any way you can. Gallegos desperately WANTS the backing of law enforcement. Since he can't get it, he has to fool the people into thinking he does have it.

That's why he sent out a press release telling people that he, Gallegos, "joined with law enforcement across the state" - and how did he do that? He endorsed a universal preschool initiative. Whooo-hooo!

Fool the people, once.

Then he asked for the endorsement of the Bill Lockyer, who, sitting in Sacramento, had no idea that Gallegos doesn't have the respect or the endorsement of local law enforcement, who was apparently unaware of the stack of complaints sent to his office regarding Gallegos' conduct in office, or that he was being used to create the appearance of law enforcement support.

Fool the people twice.
Shame on you, Paul.

 
At 9:41 PM, Anonymous Anonymous said...

Feel me once shame on you. Feel me twice and I'll vote for Worth.

 
At 12:02 AM, Anonymous Anonymous said...

Feel the same way.

 
At 8:07 AM, Anonymous Anonymous said...

Me too.

Goodbye Paul!

 
At 10:27 AM, Anonymous Anonymous said...

Me too.

 
At 4:49 PM, Anonymous Anonymous said...

How would Worth handle this shooting case with all his close ties to the cops?

 
At 5:38 PM, Anonymous Anonymous said...

The same way a responsible adult handles these kinds of incidents. There are systems in place which kick in immediately, and the investigations begin immediately. The officer is placed on administrative leave.

It's not a thing to be taken lightly, and it is not a thing to be turned into a political football by Salzman.

Even Paul SEEMS to be reacting responsibly. It's his minions that want to make a big deal out of this.

Hopefully - someone is taking care to ensure that the officer receives prompt attention, counseling if need be, this is a horrible burden to have to bear alone.

 
At 9:35 PM, Anonymous Anonymous said...

I like football

 

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