Ok, so I cooked like a mad woman, made some really cool things that I’ve never made before, baked some cookies that were just fabulous in Iowa and really didn’t turn out as well here, but that’s ok. Then, cleaned so that everything was ready and hosted a coffee for the candidate for Pima County Attorney, Brad Roach.

Brad has a great set of goals for the office with the wisdom to say that he thinks that, should he get elected, he would serve two terms (if he gets re-elected) and then leave the office. His thoughts are that you can become tainted with all the political pressures that are applied to any elected office and he doesn’t want that to happen to him. He even has a person selected (or directed) to “boot him in the butt” when he begins to get the big head. Good for him. Not only that but he has a plan to reduce the crime rate in Pima County which has a higher ratio of crime than New York City. Now come on, it doesn’t take a rocket scientist to realize that something has to be done to get the problem under control. If you are going to spend all your time in court with petty problems and not arrest and convict those that are repeat offenders you really aren’t going to get the crime under control.

Our current County Attorney tries lots of cases (well, she doesn’t, she hasn’t tried a case in many, many years and hasn’t attended a court hearing either to encourage or support her team) to grab the publicity in the local papers. That actually works to bring people to the mind that she’s doing something (she is, just not the right things) but other than funding opportunities because of the publicity there really isn’t much getting taken care of.

When all the law enforcement agencies in the county support the current County Attorney’s opponent you have to know that something just isn’t working for her. Brad Roach has the support of every law enforcement agency in the county. Now these are the people that KNOW who the criminals really are and want to get them off the streets, but in order to do that they have to have the backing of the County Attorney to prosecute them rather than blow the cases off and let the “bad guys” back on the streets. How discouraging for the law enforcement officers to have to deal with that type of attitude. Let’s see, if I try 6 little cases instead of one bigger one I get in the paper 6 times instead of once. I guess if you are a publicity hound and really don’t care about the type of crimes you are prosecuting then it has accomplished the goal. On the other hand, the officers have spent untold hours putting together the case of a known drug dealer or repeat offender, which would take the prosecuting office more time to try but get a real problem off the street instead of taking the “easy” way out, only to have them ignored or plea bargained down instead of taking it all the way. How hard will the officers work to build a case, take it to the County Attorney who then decides that it just isn’t worth her time, or the time of the 400 (her number) other attorney’s in her office to try?

I’ve heard both candidates speak. I made my judgment on which one to support by the logic of their plan to make a change. I didn’t hear anything from Barbra LeWall that led me to believe that anything would change, it would continue as usual with crime increasing dramatically. From Brad Roach I at least heard a plan, a logical, methodical plan that will decrease the crime rate in Tucson, give the assistant county attorney’s the opportunity to try real cases and give the law enforcement officers the support they need to continue doing their job. Wasn’t a hard decision to make.

So, that being said I hosted a coffee for Brad Roach last night. It was a delight to have the people come to hear him (and eat…although not nearly enough…had LOTS of food left). Scott and Nancy came from our neighborhood, Peggy came from quite a distance, two fellow Rotarian’s and their wives (Steve and Gama) where here as well as Cyn and us. Brad probably changed the voting mind of a couple of those that were here and have voted for the current County Attorney before, but even if he didn’t (but I believe he did) they now have heard the other side of the equation.

The house is now back in order and the chicken is thawing for dinner tonight. Micher is here visiting Cyn which means fried chicken dinner. It will be great to see her, even with her broken foot. I’ve done that and know it’s not a comfortable situation, and it takes a long time to heal, but, determined Micher still caught the flight, changed terminals in Dallas and arrived in Tucson for a trip to Mexico!