Commentary by TED GRANT
If you agree with the premise that relevant experience matters for the next president, then one candidate stands out in the race for the White House.
If you agree with the premise that a sheriff is a law-enforcement officer, then one candidate stands out in the race for Essex County sheriff.
If you agree with the premise that relevant experience matters in the State House, then one candidate stands out in the race for 9th Essex District representative.
Hillary Clinton knows what the presidency entails. She was a United States senator. She was Secretary of State. She can walk into the White House on Friday, Jan. 20, 2017 ready to be president.
Kevin Coppinger, the Democrat candidate for sheriff, has 33 years’ public-safety experience and has worked as a police chief in a city of more than 90,000 since 2009. He has a proven track record working with organizations committed to putting young men on a straight and narrow path. He has implemented community-liaison programs and training initiatives he promises to bring to the Sheriff’s Department. He has overseen a law-enforcement agency that, in the region, is second only to the Sheriff’s Department in size. He has directly managed 200 law-enforcement employees and implemented $20 million annual budgets. He has negotiated union contracts, fought for additional funding sources, and successfully run the department during times of budget constraints. He knows that many of the male and female substance-addicted inmates who end up under the sheriff’s jurisdiction were arrested on local streets before being sent to Middleton jail, only to return to the street without a path forward to a law-abiding life.
Coppinger faces opposition from Mark Archer, a former State Police officer, sheriff’s employee and attorney; Kevin Leach, a retired county commissioner; and Anne Manning-Martin, a Peabody city councilor who is one of 24 deputy superintendents in the state Department of Corrections and who contrasts her experience in corrections with her other opponents’ in law enforcement by saying, “You don’t send a cop to put out a fire.”
OK, but you do send one to enforce the law.
Donald Wong is a former Saugus Town Meeting and Board of Selectmen member; a three-term Republican state legislator representing precincts in Saugus, Lynn, and Wakefield; can take credit for tax dollars he has helped secure for town school improvements, Route 1 repairs, and upgrades to the Saugus water supply. Democrat Jennifer Migliore worked 14 months as a district representative for U.S. Rep. Seth Moulton.
Be it for state rep, Essex County sheriff, or president, voters must decide if relevant experience matters.
It is The Item’s policy not to endorse candidates for public office. Instead, we view it as our responsibility to present news and relevant information – and we believe relevant experience matters. If you agree with that premise you can only reach one conclusion in each race.
(Ted Grant is the publisher of The Item.)