I have supported Ben Lammons' candidacy for District Attorney ever since he announced last August. Three reasons have impelled me to do so. First, experience: Ben has the most extensive experience and qualifications for the job, having been a prosecutor for 25 years in multiple jurisdictions, both state and federal, in Colorado, in New Mexico and on the Southern Ute Indian Reservation.
Second, Ben's balanced, thoughtful, pragmatic approach to criminal justice: Separate the hard-core criminals from the goofy redeemable kids; then go hard after the first to protect us all from violent predators, while striving to divert the second toward rehabilitation and re-entry into family and community. This has been the gist of Ben Lammons' work on the Southern Ute Reservation.
The third reason is unfortunate but alas cannot be ignored: The relentless abusive attacks on Mr. Lammons and his record by surrogates of the other candidate, all of them well-plugged into the Durango Dem establishment. These surrogates have apparently concluded that praising their chosen candidate is not enough, and that only vociferous abuse of Ben Lammons and his record will buy them victory. One of them, our current DA, appears to still be fighting the ghost of his predecessor, for whom Ben Lammons worked as an assistant DA.
The other surrogate, a member of the La Plata County Democratic Party executive committee, has taken it upon herself to damn Ben with his extensive record--how come he can't keep a single job? How come he hasn't been digging himself into a lifelong narrow tunnel? Joining our current DA, she then dumps on the Southern Ute Justice Department for, somehow, not being complex and professional enough, as if it were a third-grade legal wasteland.
If Ben's record and his judicial philosophy were not enough to sway me, the tenor of his relentless abusers has surely succeeded. I will be voting for broad experience, for a balanced approach to criminal justice, for protection of home and community. I will be voting for Ben Lammons.
Tom Givón
Ignacio
