elect DAVID NELSON State's Attorney [primary campaign]

A visibly tired Eric Fodor submitted the following article in the wee hours after the election was decided:

The Democrat primary for state's attorney was a nail-biter for both candidates, but David Nelson squeaked past Kelly Phelps, largely by receiving strong support from Harrisburg voters.

The final vote total was 2,340 to 2,290. Even though the margin was razor-thin, Phelps called Nelson about 12:45 a.m. and conceded the race, Nelson said.

Nelson carried all Harrisburg precincts except precincts 2 and 6, with Phelps winning each of those precincts by one vote. He [Nelson] also carried rural precincts such as Mountain, Independence, Brushy and Cottage townships.

Phelps ran well in Eldorado and Raleigh, while the voting was close in Galatia and Carrier Mills precincts.

Nelson, visibly tired after a day of campaigning, was glad the race is over, but elated by the result.

"I'm so worn out that it's hard for me to say anything intelligent, but I am very grateful to the voters of Saline County for nominating me for state's attorney and I will never betray that trust," Nelson said.

The race turned bitter in the final weeks of the campaign, with Phelps ending up on the defensive about his experience in trying criminal cases after a series of advertisements were published in the Daily Register/Daily Journal by Nelson.

Nelson declined to comment on the advertisements or on the tone of the campaign.

Phelps was not present at the courthouse Tuesday evening and could not immediately be reached for comment.

While there was no Republican candidate for state's attorney on the primary ballot, GOP party leaders are not ruling out trying to nominate a candidate by caucus at a future Republican Central Committee meeting.

My opponent called me about 12:45 a.m. Wednesday to concede. At that time all precincts were in, and I had a 49 vote lead. I picked up another overnight, so that the final official tally was 2,340 to 2,290.

I will never be able to thank enough everybody who had a hand in winning this uphill battle.

THANK YOU, THANK YOU, THANK YOU!

Eight hundred Democrats made mail applications to vote absentee in the primary by Thursday's deadline. I don't know how many have voted absentee in person--and that can still be done through Monday, March 15, at the county clerk's office in the courthouse.

Now we have to get the people out to vote on Tuesday. Mona and several volunteers are in charge of this aspect of the campaign. They'll be making phone calls to remind people to vote and providing rides to the polls.

We need to make sure that anyone who mistakenly goes to his or her former polling place in Harrisburg is steered to the right location--either Davenport gym at the high school or the gym at McKinley Avenue Baptist Church. Everyone in Harrisburg who is to vote at McKinley should have received a postcard from the county clerk. The full listing of polling places has appeared in The Daily Register and The Daily Journal the past two days, but I can't find it online.

Here's what we posted earlier.

1. Please list your previous experience, if any, in elective office.

In 1984 I was elected by the circuit judges of the nine counties of the First Judicial Circuit of Illinois to serve as an associate judge. I was retained in 1987, 1991, and 1995.

During my 15½ years as a judge, I presided over thousands of cases of all kinds, from small claims and traffic tickets to complex civil litigation and serious felonies including murder. I was assigned by the Illinois Supreme Court to preside over courtrooms from Cairo to Chicago. For most of my time on the bench I was assigned to the Williamson County Courthouse in Marion.

2. If elected, what would you do to deal with the methamphetamine problem in Saline County?

I will give immediate attention to dealing with methamphetamine on several fronts. As state's attorney, I intend to prosecute meth offenders aggressively. But I don’t agree that we should just blindly lock everybody up and throw away the key. For one thing, the costs of jailing and imprisoning drug offenders are already breaking us financially, both here in Saline County and nationwide. It costs the taxpayers more to keep a person in prison than it does to send a student to Harvard.

As I announced earlier, my office will cooperate fully with Judge Lockwood's new drug court program. No defendant convicted of a meth offense, even a first offender, will be sentenced to probation unless he or she can show the ability to stay drug free and comply with all the other stringent requirements of drug court, including mandatory jail time, treatment, and testing.

If a convicted defendant isn't willing or able to meet the program's requirements, then my office will be back in court recommending jail or prison.

I also think more can and must be done to control methamphetamine manufacture on the supply side. We have to recognize that the main reason meth labs get set up in rural areas like ours is the ready access to essential ingredients, especially anhydrous ammonia. If we are serious about ending the methamphetamine plague in our area, we need to take a hard look at ways to shut down the supply of anhydrous ammonia, which is now just sitting out there ripe for the plucking in farmers' fields. If I am elected, I intend to name a committee composed of local people knowledgeable about farming and agricultural chemicals to develop a "farmland security" program designed to make anhydrous ammonia inaccessible to meth cookers.

Of course the methamphetamine problem isn’t going to be solved by politicians’ words. A solution will require a team approach. Everybody knows that meth is bad, but wishing won't make it go away. Nobody has all the answers. It's going to take clear thinking and hard work on the part of many people of good will including churches, community groups, police, prosecutors, judges, and the general public before the methamphetamine problem can be solved. But it can be solved.

3. Given the county's financial condition, is there any way the state's attorney's office -- other than what is presently being done -- can help improve the county's financial condition? Is reducing office costs a viable option?

There is no way that I can really know whether the costs of operating the state's attorney's office can be reduced significantly until I have the opportunity to observe day-to-day operations from the inside. The office has just taken a 15% reduction, and I have been told that all the current employees are diligent and hard-working. Of course it's a rare operation of any kind which could not be made more efficient.

Part of the state's attorney job is to recommend to judges the imposition of appropriate fines, depending on the circumstances of an offense and the ability of a defendant to pay. Larger fines could certainly be imposed in so-called white-collar or non-violent offenses in which a defendant is seeking probation or court supervision, rather than a jail term. And past efforts to collect back fines must be continued.

By law, the state's attorney not only prosecutes crimes, but represents the county in civil cases. According to figures I have obtained from the county treasurer, over the past 26 months more than $145,000 of taxpayers’ money has been expended on outside counsel representing the county in civil matters. (This does not include the highly publicized landfill matter.) I don't know the specifics of those particular cases, but it would seem on the face of it that most if not all of those expenditures could be saved if the state's attorney office did that work. I am confident in my ability as a lawyer to educate myself about just about any legal issue which might involve Saline County and its officers.

4. How do you see payment of your assistants? Through public funding or another method? If another method is acceptable, then please outline the other methods of payment you would use.

Assistant state’s attorneys and office personnel need to be paid by public funds budgeted for that purpose.

5. Plea bargaining is often a misunderstood concept and often becomes part of a campaign. What approach will you take in prosecution in cases?

Most cases (both in this county and everywhere else that I’m familiar with over my 27 years plus as a lawyer) end up with the defendant pleading guilty. Sometimes it is an “open” plea. That means the judge gets a report of a presentence investigation about the circumstances of this offense and the defendant’s prior life, hears arguments by the prosecutor and the defense lawyer, and then imposes a sentence permitted by law for that offense. A negotiated plea is a compromise. After the prosecution and the defense have enough information to evaluate the strength of the case and the other relevant circumstances (including the defendant’s prior record, ability and willingness to help with other cases, etc.), both sides agree to recommend a particular sentence to the judge. The final decision on a sentence is up to the judge.

My ability to evaluate cases, gained through many years’ experience in criminal court, handling hundreds of trials and negotiated pleas, will enable me to run a more efficient office. I will dispose quickly of the cases which can be pled out, and devote my time and energy to prosecuting the cases that have to be tried.

6. Are there areas where you would encourage stronger law enforcement?

In addition to the fight against narcotics and white-collar crimes, previously discussed, I will place primary emphasis on crimes of violence. Peaceable, law-abiding citizens should not have to put up with people who are a danger to others: those are the criminals for which prisons are designed. I also believe in taking a firm response to vandalism and malicious mischief and other crimes which take away from the quality of our everyday life. I intend to do everything in my power to bring to justice anyone who takes advantage of the most vulnerable among us: children, the elderly, people with disabilities, and battered partners.

I also have a very low tolerance for any offense which affects our system of government: election fraud, bribery, perjury, official misconduct, and the like.

7. In 500 words or less, how would you operate the office?

I would run an efficient, accessible, and professional state’s attorney’s office. I would insist on courtesy and professionalism on the part of the members of my staff. We would not play favorites or be under the control of any political faction. We would do everything in our power to make intelligent use of the people’s resources.

Of course a state’s attorney who tries cases, as I intend to do, cannot always be immediately available to come to the phone or speak with you in person. But I will make it a practice, as I have in my private law office, to get back to you as soon as possible if you leave me a message.

No one should hesitate to call me with information or questions pertaining to the duties and responsibilities of the state’s attorney’s office. I may not have an answer, or it may not always be the answer you would like to hear, but I will be available and accessible to all the people of Saline County.

The state’s attorney is charged with the responsibility of safeguarding everybody’s constitutional rights. Not just the members of one political party, or one family, or one social class, or one religion, but all the people of this county. And the paramount duty of the state’s attorney is to seek justice. I will operate my office with these principles in mind.

My opponent's misrepresentations about his record, trying to convey the impression to voters that he is experienced in criminal law, are turning out to be the central issue in the last days of the campaign.

Last week I published an ad in the Daily Register/Daily Journal entitled "Experience Matters--and So Does Telling the Truth," setting out the facts I have been able to ascertain so far, saying that the voters deserve to know the extent to which a candidate is willing to pad his record to try to win an election.

In response, Mr. Phelps charged that I was engaged in "politics of personal destruction," and that I had falsely accused him of lying about his experience. To demonstrate his experience, he quoted from a transcript of a case Rod Wolf was trying (while Mr. Phelps was in law school) in which Wolf introduced him as "my assistant Kelly Phelps." This he thought entitled him to be considered Mr. Wolf's "co-counsel."

As I say in my own response ("Tell the Truth and Shame the Devil") set to run in today's paper, that is like me claiming to have played on my Dad's baseball team because they let me be the batboy.

What next? Stay tuned--they're getting pretty desperate.

“You don't want your first jury trial to be a situation where someone's husband, or wife or child was killed.”–Kelly Phelps. [Harrisburg Daily Register and Eldorado Daily Journal, Sep. 23, 2003, “Kelly Phelps takes papers for run for state's attorney.”]

“A state's attorney cannot start to lie to the people or to himself.”–Robert Howerton. [Op. cit., Nov. 7, 2003, “Kelly Phelps is candidate for state's attorney.”]

"Tell the truth and shame the Devil."--Anon., old saying.

In ads which ran Friday and Saturday, my opponent responded to my ad entitled "Experience Matters--and So Does Telling the Truth." He is "deeply saddened" by my "negative, personal attacks," and says:"Now my opponent has falsely accused me of lying about my experience saying that I have never tried a criminal case."

Actually, what I've been claiming is that he has been attempting to mislead the voters into believing that he has ever tried a criminal jury trial. And as I've pointed out repeatedly over the past few weeks, the records in the courthouses where he has claimed to have tried cases cannot find even one criminal jury trial that he has had since he graduated from law school in 1995.

I believe, as I said in my ad, that the voters deserve to know the extent to which a candidate for state's attorney is willing to pad his record to attempt to win the election.

"The truth will out," they say. I hope it happens before the election, which is only nine days away.

The only jury cases he claims prove my point. The record is clear. He was not even a lawyer at the time. Rod Wolf was allowing him to work in his office during summer vacation from law school. Phelps was not "co-counsel" to Rod or Assistant State's Attorney Paul Myers, and he did not participate in the trials by examining any witness or otherwise.

Some people seem to think you can say anything in an election campaign, and the voters are too uninformed to know when you're lying to them. I hope that's not true.

We have the Lions Club facility in Harrisburg reserved Saturday morning (March 6th) for a "meet the candidate" event. Please come by, bring the kids or grandkids, have a doughnut and a cup of coffee, and/or a glass of juice or a bowl of fruit salad, and show your support for the campaign.

The Lions' Den is in the old operating engineers' building, at the south end of Main Street.

We'll be there from 6 until at least 10 a.m.

We'll also have campaign literature to be distributed and information about polling places. And for those who are interested, we'll talk about plans for getting out the vote on Election Day, a week from Tuesday, March 16th.

The Daily Register/Daily Journal has sent out the following questionnaire to the state's attorney candidates. Answers will be published some time between March 10th and Election Day, Tuesday, March 16th.

1. Please list your previous experience, if any, in elective office.

2. If elected, what would you do to deal with the methamphetamine problem in Saline County?

3. Given the county's financial condition, is there any way the state's attorney's office-- other than what is presently being done -- can help improve the county's financial condition? Is reducing office costs a viable option?

4. How do you see payment of your assistants? Through public funding or another method? If another method is acceptable, then please outline the other methods of payment you would use.

5. Plea bargaining is often a misunderstood concept and often becomes part of a campaign. What approach will you take in prosecution in cases?

6. Are there areas where you would encourage stronger law enforcement?

7. In 500 words or less, how would you operate the office?

A point to ponder. Your opponent has stated he is not a social worker. Isn't that an odd remark? Now it is my understanding he is planning to become a minister. Can't you just see him telling one of the flock, "Don't bother me, bud, I'm a minister not a social worker." . . . [W]hat he is really trying to say with the "social worker" remark is that meth users are part of "them" and thus not worth our extra attention. After all, we all know this side of heaven it is always a matter of "us" and "them." Heaven help us if we ever start thinking of "them" as those of "us" who have gone astray. . . .

According to information obtained from the county clerk's office yesterday, here is where Harrisburg voters in each precinct are now scheduled to cast their ballots in the upcoming primary (with the previous polling place in parentheses):

Davenport gym, at the high school:

Precinct No. 1 (Blackman High Rise, Skaggs St.)
Precinct No. 2 (Pruett-Patton building, Church St.)
Precinct No. 5 (Social Brethren rec building, Land St.)
Precinct No. 6 (County maintenance garage, Feazel St.)
Precinct No. 9 (ASCS office, Commercial St.)
Precinct No. 11 (Lions Club, Sullivan St.)
Precinct No. 13 (Lions Club, Sullivan St.)
Precinct No. 15 (Leo Jones's building, Missouri St.)
Precinct No. 16 (Social Brethren rec building, Land St.)
Precinct No. 17 (Nazareth activity center, McHaney Rd.)

McKinley gym, behind McKinley Ave. Baptist Church:

Precinct No. 3 (Sneed High Rise, McKinley St.)
Precinct No. 4 (Pruett-Patton building, Church St.)
Precinct No. 7 (Park office, Poplar St.)
Precinct No. 10 (Park office, Poplar St.)
Precinct No. 12 (Shriners' building, St. Mary's Dr.)
Precinct No. 14 (Sneed High Rise, McKinley St.)

(The polling place for Muddy voters, Harrisburg Precinct No. 8, is unchanged.)

My primary opponent, the man with the plan, has still not come forward with any evidence that he has ever tried a criminal jury case, anywhere, any time, since we began challenging him on this issue.

Last night at the Democratic Women's Organization meeting to which all candidates were invited, Mr. Phelps seemed to be claiming that he had helped State's Attorney Rod Wolf with trials when he (Mr. Phelps) was in law school. All present were too polite (or too embarrassed) to ask him to tell us all about one of his most memorable criminal trials.

The resume on his "website" continues to cite by name only two "slip and fall" cases in which he was the lawyer. And he continues to claim "Tried more than 25 criminal and civil jury trials."

I guess you could argue that 26 or more civil plus zero criminal equals more than 25 criminal and civil. This may be the new math. Or the new values.