Local October Surprises
This morning, I was reading the paper, and I came upon a story that showed me that the October Surprise has infiltrated local politics. I guess I shouldn’t be surprised, but this one was too shameless.
The county next to us changed its sheriff 8 years ago. The county’s politics had long been dominated by the Democrats but has been turning red recently. In 1998, the Democratic sheriff was ousted by a Republican. Now, I don’t know much about the man, but I do know that the Democrats hate him. I have heard them say too many bad things about him.
Now, that county still has a Democratic prosecuting attorney. This man is on television more often than any local politician I have ever seen. He calls press conferences all the time to pat himself on the back over his accomplishments. He ran for Attorney General this year and finished third in a three-man primary.
Yesterday, he held a press conference to announce that he has uncovered malfeasance in the Sheriff’s office. He has discovered that the sheriff has been selling confiscated weapons without following the correct procedures. Further, he has discovered a secret bank account that the sheriff is using to launder money. These are some serious allegations, indeed.
There are two problems with the investigation. First, the woman who conducted the investigation was the former sheriff who was defeated by the current sheriff in 1998. Oh yeah, she also happens to be the campaign manager for the current Democratic nominee for sheriff. The second problem is that, despite the seriousness of these allegations, the prosecuting attorney is not filing charges. On one of the charges, the statute of limitations “might” have run out. In the other case, he has not fully finished investigating and he is not sure that he can file any charges.
How brazen is this? One week before an election, a prosecuting attorney is making vague allegations about wrongdoing from an investigation he commissioned conducted by the campaign manager of the target’s opponent. Oh, and there may not have been any crime committed, but he wanted to make sure that everyone knew about it.
This doesn’t even come close to passing the smell test. Sadly, the Democrats will hail this man as a hero.
By any means necessary. It sure seems to fit, doesn’t it?
