DA Dan Dow: Stop obsessing about your opponent's name

Four years ago, we did not endorse Dan Dow for district attorney because we did not believe he was ready to step up to that position. We haven't been able to shake those misgivings and unfortunately, his campaign has not been especially enlightening.

For one thing, a debate over his opponent's name has sucked up way too much attention in this race. (More on that later.)

Dow has had some notable successes over the past four years: He led a crackdown on human traffickers; his office won a couple of major convictions that should send a strong message that the community won’t stand for sexual slavery. Dow started a misdemeanor diversion program that keeps first-time, minor offenders out of the court system. That’s a humane approach that we welcome. We also support his effort to add a full-time elder abuse prosecutor to the office.

But we’re troubled by some of the decisions of the DA’s Office — most recently the criminal prosecution of a mentally ill man who is accused of assaulting a technician at the county mental health facility. The defendant, who suffers from schizophrenia, was delusional at the time.

This is overreach. Why are we continuing to punish people for being mentally ill?

There are other signs that the DA's office has struggled under Dow’s leadership.

The trial conviction rate has declined, and based on a opinion survey, the office has the highest dissatisfaction rate of any county department. Dow blames that on low participation in the survey.

“People that are happy when things are going well, they often tend not to respond to a survey,” he told The Tribune.

We also question Dow’s campaign tactics; he has chosen to repeatedly berate his challenger for legally adding the word “Judge” to his name, thereby becoming Judge Mike Cummins.

Dow has sent out multiple political mailers accusing Cummins, who is retired, of deliberately trying to trick voters into thinking he's currently serving as a judge. One calls him "Crafty Cummins." Another pictures him as a magician and urges voters note to fall for Cummins' "deceptive tricks."

In the interest of transparency, we believe Cummins should have listed the word “retired” on the ballot — assuming that would have been allowed under the state's rigid rules. But any voter who's paid the least bit of attention should be aware of Cummins' background; in campaigning and in his ballot statement, he has been up front about his retirement status.

He also readily shares why he chose to change his name. He told us he was considering running for the statewide office of insurance commissioner, and was irked because he was told he could not be identified as a “retired judge” on the ballot, since he had recently worked as an attorney. (Those same rules apply to San Luis Obispo County ballots.)

So, Cummins decided to make “Judge” his first name, though he wound up not running for insurance commissioner and later decided to run for San Luis Obispo County district attorney.

Eccentric? Maybe even a tad rebellious? Sure. But Dow’s decision to harp on this says more about the district attorney than about his opponent.

Dow would have been better off focusing more on his own accomplishments, instead of repeatedly tearing down his opponent over the name change. After all, as the incumbent and a Republican candidate in a majority Republican county, Dow is clearly the frontrunner and doesn't have to resort to such hardball tactics.

That said, Cummins does have strong credentials: He was indeed a judge and a criminal prosecutor in Stanislaus County, where he ran unsuccessfully for district attorney in 2006. More recently, he worked as a defense attorney in San Luis Obispo County, where he grew up.

But because most of his career has been spent out of the area, he’s unfamiliar to many voters who are outside the legal circle, and there's scant information available about his years on the bench. (We tried to reach out to some of his former colleagues in Stanislaus County, but were unable to track them down.)

Like Greg Clayton, who is challenging incumbent Ian Parkinson in the sheriff's race, Cummins has the backing and financial support of the family of Andrew Holland, who died in the County Jail after strapped naked to a restraint chair for 46 hours.

Cummins has pledged that, if elected, he'll immediately open an investigation into Holland's death — something Dow has been criticized for not doing.

However, Cummins has not formulated goals beyond that.

"Once I get into the office and I see what is there and what is not there, I think I'll have better opportunity to make that determination," he said at a candidates' forum. "I don't have a new project on the tip of my tongue."

As we did in the sheriff’s race, we decline to make an endorsement for district attorney.

We have too many concerns about the incumbent, and we don’t know enough about Cummins to be able to vouch for his ability to lead the District Attorney’s Office.

We know many voters already have made up their minds based on their opinions of the Andrew Holland case, or on their ideological leanings. (Dow is endorsed by the SLO County Republican Party and the North County Tea Party, Cummins by the SLO County Democrats and SLO County Progressives.)

For those who remain undecided, we urge you to check out the videotape of the candidates’ forum sponsored by the Latino Outreach Council. It's at slospan.org. Go to the candidates’ websites and take a look at their policy statements and endorsements. And finally, examine their financial disclosure statements (both candidates have reported receiving over $200,000). They are online at the county elections website, www.slocounty.ca.gov/Departments/Clerk-Recorder/.

This story was originally published June 1, 2018 at 12:08 PM with the headline "DA Dan Dow: Stop obsessing about your opponent's name."