Campaign update: March 30 thru April 5
First let me say thank you to all for the support given this past week with the passing of my older brother, Walt…
My son, Andy, and my grandson, Andy, went to his funeral this past week in Washington DC. After the funeral I took them on a tour of DC, including, all you baseball fans, a private tour of the new baseball stadium of the Washington Nationals and - for all you Holly fans, a trip past the house she grew up in. Before we left DC we were able to get Andy, son, a ride along with a DC Police Office in the 5th District- my old stomping ground. Andy got a close up view of what his father did for many years.
During my absence, the opposition has wasted little time in its distribution of its second Anti-Andy letter - filled with falsehoods and half truths of things I did as Sheriff. The current Sheriff should make a public statement and denounce the letters. He should not have an issue with this - unless, he knows and supports the source of them. If so, it should be revealed. As we know, all cowards hide behind anonymity. If you notice both letters released so far during this campaign - have been released without a name attached to it. Last campaign the same thing happened, but they only sent one letter out - again with no signature.
But wait you say, how do I know the Sheriff is aware of the letters? I don’t but his campaign does. Last year one of his campaign workers thought he was being cute by calling over a dog that belonged to a neighbor that was supporting me and tied the fictional letter to the dog’s collar and sent the dog home. The dog owner called me and told me they had a copy of the bad things I did and it came from their neighbor. How do we know that, the neighbor signed it!!!! Too funny…………..and guess who has that copy? Too funny, again……………
I did not get a lot of things done on the campaign trail last week but my wife did. Seems like a lot of doors were knocked on and the advertisement is well on its way. Thanks Holly for your support and love.
In addition to Holly’s help - I also want to say a special thanks to Guy Howe and Linda Napierala………for their help walking door to door with Holly. Thanks Guy and Linda!
My, my, my, the editorialist have just begun……. I know for many - this may be very frustrating to read- keep in mind that in general the press has been fair to our administration and our campaign. I can not say that about the editorial section. The power of the pen can be mighty. Through the years I have come to understand that editorialist and I come from different molds. I do not understand why they write the way they do.
We will keep plugging away by knocking on doors, handing out the fliers and spreading the word! State the facts and only the facts. Unlike our opponent, we must not lower our standards when it comes to getting the truth out to the public.
A good Sheriff will do what is correct; a great Sheriff will do what is right!!!
And the right things to do is….
• Stop gangs in their tracks!
• Stop holding Federal Prisoners in our county jail and turn our jail back over to Benton County!
• Open up the beds that the Federal Prisoners are taking up and start holding those who have been arrested in Benton County.
• Stop the Criminal Networking between the Federal Prisoners and local prisoners.
• If you are going to spend our property tax dollars, spend it on a new, state of the art juvenile detention center and juvenile court. Do not spend it on an expansion of the jail just to bring up and hold Federal Prisoners from Louisiana!
Again, I want to thank each and every one of you for joining me in this campaign endeavor. I can never thank you enough for your support!
Andy
Ps; do you remember my prediction that the Sheriff would get off the kick of expanding the jail and bringing in more Federal Prisoners? Well it looks like I am correct. Here it is April and you have not heard a word from the Sheriff referencing the expansion.
There a few reasons for this:
1. The Sheriff knows it was a bad idea to start with.
2. The Sheriff knows the public is not in support.
3. The Sheriff knows the public is disappointed in him when they learn he is turning away a criminal arrested in Benton County because there is a no bed spaces available because the needed beds are being used by the Federal Prisoners he is holding.
4. The Sheriff knows that the criminal networking with Federal Prisoners and local prisoners is just wrong and he knows the public feels the same.
5. The Sheriff has failed to tell the public and the Quorum Court that the cost to hold a prisoner is now up to $35.00 (read story) a day and he only collects $40.00 for Federal Prisoners.
6. The Sheriff knows the public will not except the fact that for an extra $5.00 dollars a day we are using bed space for a Federal Prisoner instead of holding local prisoners.
7. The Sheriff knows that if he was really running the jail correctly we would not be having the problems we are having today with bed space issues.
Just a little FYI; I keep hearing about all the law suits I had when I was Sheriff. Well I may have had several but I am not sure if I ever had forty (40) pending at one time like the current Sheriff. His little buddies should look over their shoulder and check their facts before spouting off. It would be interesting to know what his total lawsuits are from the time he took office to now!