Look beyond attacks in sheriff’s race
OPINION —
There’s an old rule in politics that more candidates ought to remember: When you’ve
got a good argument, make it. When you’ve got a good record, run on it. And when you’ve got neither, there’s always mud.
Unfortunately, mud has become something of a renewable resource in American elections.
The Lee County Sheriff’s race has already featured plenty of criticism and argument about leadership. Fair enough. Anybody seeking public office ought to be prepared to answer hard questions.
But voters ought to demand something more useful than a steady diet of personal attacks and
insults.
A campaign ought to tell us what a candidate intends to accomplish, how he proposes to accomplish it and what qualifies him to do the job. Those are straightforward questions and shouldn’t require an army of text messaging robots and social media trolls manufacturing lies and ridicule and spreading them to thousands of people with the click of a button.
There’s a world of difference between holding a public official accountable and making a spectacle of him and our county. One is an obligation of citizenship. The other is political entertainment
and usually not very good entertainment at that.
And I think Lee County has enough good sense to recognize the difference.
Jay Jones has given more than 50 years of his life to serving Lee County, and his record includes decades of law enforcement leadership and civic involvement. He’s the sheriff we trust to protect us, the leader we need and the man who has stood beside us all in our darkest hours offering a hand of help.
That is why the citizens organizing the write-in campaign for Jay believe this November election still matters. The voters, all the voters, should have the opportunity to consider his experience, his accomplishments and his long history of service before choosing their sheriff.
The primary decided the Republican nomination. It did not settle the general election,
and it certainly did not erase 50 years of public service.
We have schools to protect, neighborhoods to keep safe, families who depend on effective law enforcement and a growing county that needs responsible leadership. Those concerns
deserve more attention than the latest insult circulating on social media.
After all, anybody can throw mud. Governing takes a little more work.
Sheriff Jay Jones knows how to govern, and I urge you all to write-in Jay Jones, the best candidate for Lee County Sheriff, on Nov. 3.
Respectfully,
Jamie Popwell
Sour Grapes of Wrath
OPINION —
As election day approaches, there is one thing that is certain for Lee County voters: Jay Jones is not handling his primary loss well. In the last few weeks, a “write-in” campaign led by progressive activists in Auburn has emerged to keep our current corrupt sheriff in office. Apparently, there are still some folks just clamoring to keep a sheriff in power who has presided over a 33% increase in county crime rates over the last four years, refuses to participate with federal immigration authorities through the 287(g) program and spies on his political opponents using taxpayer-funded tracking technology.
While the latter point is still technically an allegation, a recent article from The Blaze shows the actual screenshots of the geofencing of Cam Hunt’s private residence. The screenshots are physical proof that either Jones or one of his employees likely committed class B or class C felonies under Alabama state law to illegally monitor department employees who went to and from Hunt’s house and may have supported his campaign. This suggests an intimidation tactic designed to threaten deputies with termination — the same termination Hunt received when he had the integrity to tell Jones to his face that he felt called to run for sheriff.
That’s Jay Jones. That’s his legacy now. And that’s what people are going to remember about him years after he is gone.
And it’s a damn shame. It did not have to be this way; however, this is the path that he has chosen. But what’s equally damning in this whole embarrassing charade is the behavior of the local Republican Party. It is very clear that Jones, who won a seat on the executive committee of the party while simultaneously losing his reelection as sheriff, should endorse Hunt as the nominee or, if he can’t bring himself to do that, disavow the far-left “write-in” campaign seeking to undermine the party that was elected to represent.
And if Jay can’t do those things, he should step down from the party.
Yet the local party won’t put a statement out in support of Hunt because many are longtime buddies with Jay. And privately, many of those pushing this progressive “write-in” effort oppose stronger immigration policies in our area. Some of the developers and the builders value their cheap illegal labor and profit margins over your family’s safety.
That’s not speculation. That’s the truth.
So, what to do with this mess?
Regardless of party affiliation, voters should vote for Cam Hunt. He has the right vision, the right policies and the actual integrity to improve the safety of our county. He is committed to radical transparency, ending detention center abuses and putting public safety over the desires of developers, many of whom are from out of state.
If developers are so concerned about their labor supply, then maybe put some effort into hiring Opelika, Auburn and Beauregard students — actual citizens and kids from our community — straight out of high school with good-paying jobs and a chance to hone a skillset.
The notion that voters must choose either economic growth, or public safety is a disgusting false choice. It is one long pushed by people motivated more by money than morality. Citizens must come first because it is the imperative of our government — at any level of government — to prioritize the people from whom they derive their own legitimacy. Otherwise, citizenship is rendered meaningless.
Jay Jones forgot that. He put his own ego and the agenda of entities like the Chamber of Commerce ahead of the safety of the people he was charged with protecting. He lost his primary because of it, though I suspect an election loss won’t be the only thing he ultimately loses.
Indeed, we’re all dealing with his sour grapes of wrath as he privately pushes the “write-in” campaign, plays coy about not publicly supporting it so he can technically not violate party bylaws and whines over social media that state party officials are fed up with his antics. It’s embarrassing: for him and for this community.
My wife and I moved our family back to Opelika because this is my home, and this is a wonderful place to raise your kids and put down permanent roots with people who share values that are true, virtuous and good. I know that’s the story for so many people who left and came back, who came and stayed or who never left at all.
On Nov. 3, it’s time we put someone in the sheriff’s office who is motivated by that same thing, who risked his own job to do the right thing on behalf of all of us and who has earned this new calling. On Nov. 3, it’s time to make Cam Hunt our new sheriff and toss the sour grapes in the dumpster where they belong.
Drew White lives in Opelika with his wife and four kids.
