Voters overwhelming in support for District Attorney Dan Dow over challenger Mike Cummins
This story was updated at 12:25 a.m.
Dan Dow held a solid lead against challenger Judge Mike Cummins in the race for San Luis Obispo County District Attorney in Tuesday night's primary election, with results that barely changed throughout the night.
Dow led Cummins 64.7 to 35.2 percent, with all precincts reporting. The race won't officially be called until all mail-in ballots are counted in the coming days.
Dow, a Republican, has served as San Luis Obispo County's top prosecutor since 2014, when he defeated former Assistant DA Tim Covello, who is currently running for judge.
Cummins, a Democrat, is a former Stanislaus County prosecutor-turned judge who retired from the bench in 2006. He's since worked as a private criminal defense attorney in San Luis Obispo, and defended Rhonda Wisto, one of five members of a South County group convicted in the kidnapping and murder of Santa Maria teen Dystiny Myers.
Cummins has criticized Dow's handling of a series of high-profile deaths at the San Luis Obispo County Jail, specifically Dow's refusal to open a local investigation into the death of Andrew Holland, a mentally ill inmate who died at the County Jail in January 2017.
At about 9:30 p.m. at Dow's Election Night party at Cafe Roma in San Luis Obispo, about 70 supporters remained to await the second round of results.
Dow was surrounded by his family and by his supporters, including Assistant District Attorney Eric Dobroth and several of his deputies, as well as State Assemblyman Jordan Cunningham — himself a former San Luis Obispo County Deputy District Attorney.
Dow said he was feeling "very strong" about the initial results.
"I feel very, very grateful to the citizens of San Luis Obispo County for their affirmation, their trust and their confidence in my leading the DA's Office," Dow said.
He said he looks forward over the next six months to seeing several things he's discussed during the campaign come to fruition, such as a special diversion court for the chronic homeless who come in and out of the criminal justice system under low-level crimes.
"It's important to me to bring the players together to try to deal with the underlying conditions like we do with the Veteran's Treatment Court, and if we can help some of them, whatever percentage it is, get past the cycle of homelessness, it will have been something good for our community," Dow said.
He said he will continue to take a tough stance on serious, violent and sexual crime, but "always looking for innovative approaches to deal with those at the other end of the spectrum, like our Misdemeanaor Diversion Program."
Given the contentiousness of the race, Dow said he wants to move past that and embrace the commonalities with the roughly third or so of county voters who supported Cummins.
"I am the District Attorney for absolutely every person in this county," Dow said. "My commitment is to continue to be fair, to be open, to have an open door, to hear what their concerns are."
"We share a lot of the same concerns," Dow added. "I am very concern about the mentally ill, about the death of Andrew Holland. I'm committed to making sure we don't ever allow that to happen again."
This story was originally published June 5, 2018 at 8:22 PM with the headline "Voters overwhelming in support for District Attorney Dan Dow over challenger Mike Cummins."