Santa Clara County sheriff draws legal fire for way she hands out concealed-gun permi
 

This is in my county of residence, I have spoken about this Sheriff here several times. It looks like she may be getting her comeuppance this time!

Santa Clara County sheriff draws legal fire for way she hands out concealed-gun permits - San Jose Mercury News

The whole process is ridiculous.

"Please Commissar, may I have a permit? I made up a really compelling reason. Of course I'll donate to your reelection committee."


Top of the growing list of reasons I can't move to CA.

You have to understand: Some lives are more valuable than others and, therefore, need to be protected more than others. For instance, donor's lives are very valuable.

No offense to those of you who live there, but you state's gun laws are nutty.

No kidding! The worst part is that it is up to the individual Sheriff as to how they want to handle it and in rural (red) counties they are primarily shall-issue. Even the Sacramento county Sheriff has loosened up his permits as budget cuts force them to cut back on the number of deputies out on the streets. Also any permit issued in CA is good throughout the state, so in San Francisco where there are currently no active civilian permits if you have one from any other county in the state you are legal in SF (this is why Stephen Bechtel, a San Francisco resident, has a Santa Clara County permit.) :mad:

I helped out on the unsuccessful 2010 campaign to replace Laurie Smith and would gladly do so again if someone runs against her in 2014.

Agreed Sac. Co. Sheriff is aware that when seconds count a deputy is minutes or more away.

sounds as though she is looking at trying to put an end to her political career to me! when the residents see this type of behavior from an elected official, and showing favoritism to those who contributed to her campaign coffers, she could very well end up having to settle for being the dogcatcher.

One would hope the voters would run her off at election time. However, incumbency is a very powerful thing; it's hard to get a politician out of office.

you are so right about that! they get in office and even though people are not happy with their performance, they still get enough support at re-election time to go another term.:eek:

Smith is, unfortunately, a politician first and foremost. That is what I have been told by many people in and near the Sheriff's office and it is what I have seen myself. It is, as you say, very difficult to unseat an incumbent. When I worked on the campaign against her in 2010 she got the automatic support of almost all of the important politicians in office except for the County District Attorney. Most voters do not have any knowledge of how incompetent she is.