elect DAVID NELSON State's Attorney [primary campaign]

The Committee to Elect David Nelson has planned a fundraiser in the form of a chili supper for Thursday, February 12, from 5 to 8 p.m., at the Harrisburg Lions Club (which is located at the end of South Main Street).

If you want to help, or if you have any questions, call Mona Nelson at 252-8555.

If you can't come to the chili supper but would like to make a contribution, you may send a check made payable to The Committee to Elect David Nelson to Mona Nelson, 540 Womble Road, Harrisburg, IL 62946.

To the Editor:

I read with interest an article in Tuesday's Daily Register [Jan. 20] with the headline "John Rhoads is Innocent."

It sounds from the article as if the judge was forced to release Rhoads because the state's attorney did not meet the burden of proof. I know nothing about this trial except what I have read in the paper, my concern is that a man was accused of murder but was released because the state's attorney did not do his job.

As a matter of fact, at the beginning of the trial Judge Lowery was quoted in the Daily Register as saying that this trial is a serious matter with a man's liberty at stake.

He pointed out that this trial is not the time to be screwing around like a bunch of amateurs.

If we in Saline County need proof that experience is indispensable, I think we have it. We are fortunate that a man like David Nelson who could retire and sit back on his laurels has offered to serve Saline County as state's attorney.

I have been a registered Republican all my life but in local politics, I will always vote for people of quality and experience. I will vote for David Nelson for state's attorney.

Patty Carlson
Harrisburg

Postscript from David: I sure appreciate the vote of confidence from Patty Carlson. In all fairness to our incumbent state's attorney, Robert "Rod" Wolf, it should be pointed out that the Rhoads case took place in Pope County, not Saline. That would have been clear to anyone who had read the article referred to, or any of the series of articles in the Register about the Rhoads trial, but perhaps not to someone who had not. Pope County Circuit Judge Lowery was referring to the Pope County state's attorney, not Rod Wolf.

I lifted my reference to redemption and rehabilitation in my previous post from a letter my friend Butch McSparin submitted to the Daily Register the other day. They haven't run it yet, so I'm posting it here:

To the Editor:

Kelly Phelps is good at getting his picture in the paper. David Nelson knows what goes on in a courtroom.

It is obvious that methamphetamine is a big problem. The question for Saline County voters is who is better qualified to do something about it as state’s attorney.

Mr. Phelps is full of words about his supposed “plan,” but I’d feel a lot better about him as a candidate if I thought that he had ever actually tried a criminal case.

The voters have a chance this year to elect a state’s attorney with a wealth of experience in real-life criminal cases. And David Nelson has shown over the years, as a lawyer and judge, that he has the integrity and independence to make us proud of our state’s attorney.

Mr. Phelps’s idea that “it’s already too late” for meth addicts who are involved with the criminal justice system is defeatist and simply not true. My father, the late Paul “Blackie” McSparin, spent a good part of his life helping people with addiction problems. He knew first-hand of the possibility of rehabilitation and redemption.

For me, the choice in this election is clear. I’m voting for David Nelson.

Sincerely,

Ken “Butch” McSparin

Thanks, Butch. I sure thought a lot of your dad.

Update: The Register ran the letter in Monday's paper, along with a note saying letters about the election would not be run within 30 days of the election. I can understand a week, so as to rule out last minute bombshells that can't be answered, but 30 days?

I have several responses to the media event staged by Kelly Phelps at the courthouse the other day when he announced his supposed plan for dealing with the methamphetamine problem against a backdrop of police officers in uniform.

First, I sure can’t quarrel with the fact that meth is a serious problem around here, as it is in rural areas throughout the midwest, and our police officers are justifiably concerned about it. The question for the voters in the upcoming election for state’s attorney is simple: which candidate is most likely to do something effective about our crime problems, not just talk about them?

I have many years’ experience as a lawyer and judge in actual criminal cases. I have examined hundreds of witnesses in criminal trials. I have argued, and ruled on, motions raising complex issues of constitutional law. I have tried many criminal cases to jury verdicts. I have defended people who were falsely charged. And I have sentenced deserving offenders to prison. In one case a few years ago here in Saline County, I gave a killer even more time than the state’s attorney asked for–and I believe the defendant deserved every minute of the 105 years I gave him.

So yes, meth is a bad problem, but it bothered me–and other people have told me it bothered them, too–to see our county’s sheriff and police officers appearing, in uniform, during the work day, at the courthouse, in an apparent attempt to promote the private interests of a political candidate during a contested election campaign. The last time I looked, we have a provision in our constitution that says that public funds and public property may only be used for public purposes. I guess you can come up with some kind of rationalization that makes it okay for those officers to do what they did, but I believe that public officials and would-be public officials have a duty to set an example. That “it’s always been done this way” or that “everybody does it” doesn’t necessarily make something right.

Finally, and maybe most important: I profoundly disagree with the idea that “it’s already too late” when a drug offender is apprehended and charged. Sure, it would be a nice world if everybody was perfect, and addiction didn’t happen, and people didn’t violate the law. But that’s not the real world we live in. I was taught from childhood, and experience has confirmed, that “all we like sheep have gone astray.” It’s a dangerous fantasy to think that we’re ever going to have a bored state’s attorney because taking a get-tough stance has caused the crime problem to go away.

Education and prevention are crucial in reducing the impact of meth and other drugs, and police and prosecutors can do some good in that regard. But our police officers have the duty to investigate all kinds of crime–homicide, child abduction, drunk driving, domestic violence, sex offenses, unlawful use of weapons, elderly abuse, burglary, deceptive practices, arson, perjury, bribery, environmental offenses, fraud–the list goes on and on.

Based on the information he receives from investigators, the state’s attorney has the duty to decide, in the interests of justice, which offenders should be charged, with what offenses, and what dispositions should be proposed. In some cases, either because of the severity of the harm caused by the offense, or because of the seriousness of the defendant’s prior criminal record, it is clear that only a prison sentence would be right. In many cases, the law favors a sentence of probation, which can be subject to a requirement that the offender undergo treatment for addiction to drugs or alcohol or comply with other conditions appropriate to the crime. If I am elected, I will make full use of the resources of the probation office, the health department, and other helping agencies and resources to attempt to reduce the number of repeat offenders.

They say Calvin Coolidge was asked whether he believed in baptism by total immersion, to which he responded “Believe in it? I’ve seen it done!”

I’m that way about redemption and rehabilitation. I believe in it because I’ve seen it done. I have seen criminals turn their lives around and become productive citizens. And I think with the right approach, with a sound exercise of discretion, with a sense of justice tempered with mercy, the state’s attorney can be an important force in reducing crime in the community, and making Saline County a better place to live.

A small ad began running yesterday in the classified section of the Daily Register and the Daily Journal, as follows: "Help elect David Nelson state's attorney. Get registered now & vote March 16th! cdavidnelson.com."

For new on-line readers brought here by the reference to this site in the ad, welcome! This is my attempt to communicate with Saline County voters about my campaign for state's attorney. If you have any questions, or want to help, please call me at 253-3127 (my office), 252-8555 (home), or email me at nelson@accessus.net.

There are only 63 days, nine weeks, until the primary election. For all practical purposes, this is likely to amount to the general election, since no Republican candidate filed for the office. I think it is crucial to get the word out to all voters--not just those who usually vote in the primary--that anyone who wants to have a say in who will be the next state's attorney needs to ask for a Democratic ballot in this primary election on March 16th.

Every year one hears stories about improprieties involving absentee voting, although no one ever seems to be prosecuted. Here's the Illinois statute (10 ILCS 5/29-20):

"A person is guilty of a Class 3 felony who knowingly: (1) Solicits another person, knowing that the person is not legally qualified to vote as an absent voter, to apply for an absentee ballot; (2) Solicits another person, knowing that the person is not legally qualified to vote as an absent voter, to cast a ballot as an absent voter; (3) Intimidates or unduly influences another person to cast an absentee ballot in a manner inconsistent with the voter's intent; or (4) Marks or tampers with an absentee ballot of another person or takes an absentee ballot of another person in violation of Section 19-6 so that an opportunity for fraudulent marking or tampering is created."

(Section 19-6 severely restricts the circumstances under which anyone other than the absentee voter may legally handle an absentee ballot.)

Here's a link to the section of the Election Code called "Prohibitions and Penalties."

My opponent's family has been much in the news lately. For example, in the Thursday, January 8th, issue of the Daily Register, State Rep. Brandon Phelps was in the headlines about his eye surgery (and of course we all wish him well). Assistant Secretary of Transportation (and former Congressman) David Phelps also made the front page that same day with the article about his reported challenge of the Saline County Democratic chairman. And the attentive reader of the legal notices would have read that Larry Phelps (Eldorado Township Supervisor) is now also the manager of the Saline Valley Conservancy District.

Not in Thursday's paper, but worth noting, Kerry Sutton (David Phelps's son-in-law) is the state's attorney of White County.

Note about the Daily Register: Archived articles are now available for free only for the first 14 days. If you want to access older articles, you have to pay: $5 for one day, $10 for 7 days, $20 for 30 days.

There are 64 days until the March 16th primary. Registration ends February 17th, so now is the time to make sure all your friends and neighbors are registered to vote.