Well, it looks like embattled (should that be her first name now?) Sheriff Lupe Valdez may have an opponent in the Democratic primary. We don’t know much about the guy yet, other than he’s relatively young and works in the District Attorney’s Office, but we’ll fill you in on more details later.
On the Republican side, Lowell Cannaday, a former police chief in Irving and 28 year veteran of the Dallas Police Department before that, has already begun his campaign, having earned the endorsement of many of his party’s heavy hitters, including Ken Mayfield, Toby Shook and Bill Hill.
He’s clearly more experienced in local law enforcement than Valdez, whose prior experience came mostly in the federal level, and for now at least, we’re going to assume that the section on his Web site that touts his “family values” and his six children and grandchildren is not a subtle plea to homophobic voters put off by Valdez’s homosexuality. I mean, Republicans don’t play that card, right?
Of course, so long as we’re on the topic of slippery Web sites, Valdez’s deserves a little scrutiny for hers. Our favorite part is the part that reads “Record of Success,” where in it she actually includes her management of the jail:
Sheriff Valdez has hired over 200 new guards for the Dallas County jail, and continues to work daily to address the systemic problems in the jail system left to her by her predecessors.Neither the state nor the feds seem to agree that Valdez has reduced the systematic problems at the jail. In fact, under Valdez’s leadership, the Dallas County jail has flunked every single state inspection, while a blistering report released from the Justice Department late last year portrayed Valdez’s jail as disorganized, unsanitary and dangerous. Other than that, the feds were impressed. --Matt Pulle