Comparing the candidates

I have heard several times that Beseler should be reelected as sheriff because he is the only candidate who has had experience being the Sheriff. Following this line of reasoning, all incumbents should always be reelected, and term limits work against the public interest.

I had written previously that I wouldn’t do any more blogging about my candidate; things have changed. I have learned some more about Newman’s law enforcement experience, and I think it is worthwhile to compare it with Sheriff Beseler’s experience. Also, it appears that someone considers Newman to be a threat because some of his roadside signs were vandalized in Middleburg.

While driving last night to the Middleburg Civic Association building I noticed some Newman supporters putting up signs on the corner of Blanding and 218. Today walking past that same corner I saw that all of those signs has been pulled out and left laying in the grass. It wasn’t wind, because if they had been blown out of the ground they would have been blown down the street. There are about 10 other signs on that corner for various candidates, and all those signs are fine. Someone pulled those signs out. I stood two of them back up, I couldn’t find the stakes for the third, so I took it and put it in my trunk. I don’t know what I am going to do with it. My first impulse was to take it and post it onto a Taylor sign as retaliation, but I felt that would be a type of vandalism. With my luck I’d get caught, and if I’m going to get arrested I want to be for something better than petty vandalism.

Why do I think it was Taylor supporters? Because they are the most likely suspects in the vandalism of Beseler signs, an incident that the Sheriff mentioned at the Ridgeview forum. I just have the feeling that a lot of the Taylor people are not very nice, and I can imagine one of them jumping out of a vehicle and ripping some Newman signs out of the ground. Yeah, I might hide behind a pseudonym, but I would consider it beneath me to do something so childish and meaningless as messing with a candidate’s sign. They aren’t my property, and indirect aggression is not fulfilling.

Now for a comparison between Sheriff Beseler and Gary Newman. I am getting this information from Mr. Newman’s new campaign pamphlet, and from the Sheriffs campaign website.

Beseler: Dispatcher through patrol sergeant, 5 years, Green Cove Springs police department. Note that this was not with Clay County, this was Green Cove Springs. I think that going from dispatcher to patrol sergeant in just 5 years is very good, but Green Cove Springs has a very small force. I assume that a patrol sergeant is more or less a shift supervisor, and as such he couldn’t have had more than a few people working for him.

After his five years in Green Cove, Besler spent 25 years with the 4th circuit of the State Attorney’s office, rising from investigator to chief investigator. In 2004 he was elected as Sheriff of Clay County.

I cannot fault Beseler on his record. He put in his time in law enforcement, both as a policeman and an investigator, he went to school and got his bachelor and his master’s, and he rose through the ranks. Yet, I feel that Mr. Newman has more experience in policing.

Newman: After 20 years in the Navy, much of which I believe he spent in military law enforcement, Newman spent 2 years as a Clay County deputy and 4 years as a Clay County investigator. I assume that a CCSO investigator and a state attorney investigator have very similar jobs, so you can compare Beseler’s and Newman’s investigative experience.

After leaving CCSO, Newman spent 20 years as the Chief of Police at NAS JAX, during which he "administered an annual multi-million dollar budget." I don’t know how large of a police force NAS JAX has, but I would say that during normal times it is comparable with being the chief of police for a small town. I would bet that during normal times Newman supervised more people than Beseler ever did as a chief investigator for the state attorney’s office, and I would also bet that a chief investigator never had to draw up a multi-million dollar budget. However, 911 occurred during Newman’s term as NAS police chief. This caused the base to increase it’s security by an incredible amount, according to Newman’s pamphlet he managed "350 law enforcement personnel, post 911." I don’t know how many people are employed by CCSO, but 350 is a lot of people to be in charge of. In military terms, someone in charge of 350 people is a battalion commander, and that is a Lt. Coronel.

From 2003-2007 Newman was the Deputy Director of Security at the base. I don’t know what his duties consisted of, but a deputy director would be the second in charge for all of the security for all of NAS JAX, and I assume that the actual director would be a naval officer. People seem to be focusing on the security aspect of Newman’s career and saying that his experience is "specialized" only in security. That was for just a four year period after 20 years as chief of police, 4 years as an investigator, 2 years as a deputy, and 20 years in the Navy. This also makes the assumption that security is not a big deal. I spent 2 years as a Marine Security Guard at Naval Weapons Station, Charleston, and let me tell you, security is no joke. Yeah, a lot of it is standing around, checking badges, searching vehicles, rattling locks, and running drills, but there is a purpose behind it. If you are ever caught trying to gain unauthorized access to a Naval Weapons Station you will have 5 minutes at most before you are surrounded by a large number of heavily armed Marines.

NAS JAX is a little different than a weapons station, but it still has a great deal that has to be secured. There are guards at the gates, there are guards at the access points of many, many buildings, and every single person who goes onto that base has to be authorized for the badge that gives them access. There are planes, helicopters, and ordinance on that base, and all of that has to be secured. When the President comes to Jacksonville, Airforce One lands at NAS JAX, so the flightline has to be secured. Don’t think that base security consists of a couple of rent-a-cops.

Beseler is the Sheriff of Clay County, and nothing I can say can take away from those four years of experience, during which many say that he has done a good job. However, let us pretend that Beseler had never been elected as Sheriff, that he had just left the state attorney’s office and that the current election was just between him and Newman. If that was the reality there is not way anyone would consider Beseler to be more qualified than Newman, not by a longshot.

However, Beseler does have 4 years experience as being Sheriff; whether this equates to more or better overall experience in law enforcement than Newman is a hard question to answer. However, let’s not forget that in 2004 Beseler only beat Lancaster by about 6,800 votes. If not for Lancaster’s credit card misuse, Beseler probably would never have been elected at all.

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