Last update: Danville City Commonwealth’s Attorney Race – Update #2
We’re right at the 30-day mark before the election, so let’s see what’s going on.
News: All three candidates are in full campaign mode. Jim Martin has proposed a “drug court” idea for the city and that makes a lot of sense. Claudette Robertson is holding steady, and Mike Newman seems to have the “front-runner” attitude of confidence in his appearance. In a race that might get votes just because of name recognition, all three candidates seem to know the need for blanket advertising. Martin has started local TV ads (but he’s got to appear less wooden), Robertson’s big moving van continues to be highly visible and she has started with signs that have her photo on them (yes, that makes a big difference when you’re female. That may not be politically correct to say, but it works), and Newman’s signs are getting larger and more eye-catching as well.
Robertson & Newman haven’t really touched Martin’s “drug court” idea yet, unlike when the other candidates talked about Robertson’s “open-file discovery” proposal. Both of those issues would be major policy changes compared to Bill Fuller’s 40-year administration, so Newman’s smart to stay away from either of those topics.
My take on the candidates in 15 words or less…
Newman – “If you like Bill Fuller, you’ll like me.”
Martin – “Time for a change, but not that big of a change.”
Robertson – “It’s time for a complete outsider, but an outsider that’s very qualified.”
All three candidates would be a good Commonwealth’s Attorney and that’s probably going to lead to a name recognition and popularity contest with a few issues thrown in.
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Prediction of the popular vote: As before, I don’t see any of the candidates getting more than 42% of the vote at this time.
OddsMakers of the candidate winning the election: Newman 35%, Robertson 33%, Martin 32% – Newman gets an ever-slight insignificant advantage because of his confident attitude right now, but that’s for the moment)
It’s really a three-way tossup right now when you get down to it. Let’s see how the final month goes.
[poll id=”4″]
Drug court is probably a non-starter for a couple of different reasons. The biggest one is funding. The Commonwealth’s budget is tight, and they seem to have gotten out of the funding business for drug court programs even before that. Franklin County got a drug court during the last session of the General Assembly, but the requirement was that it gets 100% local funded. Somebody with the purse strings for the City would have to get behind this, or somebody would have to get grant funding that is seen as stable enough to launch a program like this.
You’d also need the support of a judge at either the Circuit or Juvenile & Domestic Relations District Court level for this to work. This is an unknown, but it seems like a good assumption that there is not such support at present or you would think there would have been an effort to get a drug court already.
The need is there, and I would hope that any Commonwealth’s Attorney who gets elected would be open to this. It’s another tool in that office’s arsenal, and the Commonwealth’s Attorney is often the gatekeeper for who gets into a program like this. It’s not a magic bullet, but there are enough successful programs out there that it is likely a Danville drug court could be fashioned to help the community.
The vicious cycle of crime, status as a felon, no job because people don’t like to hire felons, and more crime certainly is not enhancing the status of the city with the outside world. People need to get a chance to atone for doing something stupid. It’s the way North Carolina seems to be set up for the most part. It’s the way a lot of Virginia is set up. People need to ask themselves if the punitive focus of some officials in Danville is working for or against the community.
My opinion on Jim Martin’s drug court. Who is he to tell me what I can put in my body? Im not a child Im a grown man; quite frankly theres more danger in taking the swine flu vaccine than there is in my using marijuana.
“If you like Bill Fuller, you’ll like me” may be Mike Newman’s strategy but it is not quite reality. Maybe you should ask Bill Fuller what he thinks of Mike Newman, I think that would make an interesting topic for your next blog entry.