I have been a prosecutor for 25 years and I am currently serving as the assistant district attorney under Thom LeDoux. I am writing to encourage voters to repeal term limits for the elected district attorney.

Mr. LeDoux has proven himself to be a dedicated and effective advocate for the citizens or our communities. He is a skilled and talented trial attorney. He has brought our office into the 21st century with state-of-the-art computer technology. And most importantly, he has demonstrated courage and integrity when making prosecutorial decisions. He makes decisions based upon the strength of the evidence and the equities of the case, and never bows to political pressures.

Given a chance, Mr. LeDoux will dedicate his career to serving our communities for a number of years to come.

As a general principle, term limits are a very bad idea for the office of the district attorney. No state other than Colorado imposes term limits for district attorneys. The reason is simple. Public defenders and private criminal defense attorneys have the opportunity to develop expertise over decades of practice. Term limiting the district attorney gives a distinct advantage to the defense. Do you really want the defendant who has terrorized your community or victimized your daughter to be represented by someone with more experience than your DA? Of course not. Vote "YES" on 4A.

Kathy Eberling
Assistant District Attorney
Cañon City

I have recently attended BOCC meetings and political meetings throughout the county in order to become an informed citizen regarding the upcoming election. The people of this county seem to be concerned about transparency and how their tax money is being spent. After looking at the warrants (bills paid by the county) in last week’s Fairplay Flume, I am outraged at the payment listed to UMB Visa in the amount of $673,466.08. By law, 30-25-111 C.R.S., it is the duty of the board of county commissioners to disclose “the name of and the amount paid to each individual or firm, a description of the services or material furnished to the county, and, as to other items, the nature of any claim and disclosing the fund charged with each expenditure.” This listing of “county credit card” seems to defy this law. Although the check was made to UMB Visa, they are not the vendor, they are a creditor. UMB Visa may receive the check but they then disburse this money to the individuals providing service. It would seem to me that amount of money would constitute many vendors and many different services or material provided. It may be that these expenditures are expensed properly in the budget but how would the citizens know that without requesting open records. I have made such a request this morning and am scheduled to pick up the information on Tuesday, March 16, 2010 at 12:00. I decided to research the bills further and found that the UMB Visa bill for January was $234,980.84, December $74,187.69, November $22,001.31 and October $15,151.63. Over $1,000,000.00 spent in five months without a breakdown of expenditures. I expect better from my county commissioners and that is why I am officially announcing my candidacy as an unaffiliated candidate for County Commissioner-District 3.

Monica Jones
Hartsel, CO