The race to steer the Bristol District Lawyer’s workplace will apparently be a contest actually this time round, after a former assistant district lawyer introduced he’ll search the GOP nomination.
Seth Aitken, a former ADA who labored below present Bristol County District Lawyer Tom Quinn in addition to former Bristol DA Sam Sutter, introduced Monday that he’ll search the conservative nod towards the overall election as a result of the residents of Bristol County deserve a district lawyer who will assist maintain their communities and households protected.
“I’m running for Bristol County District Attorney because our residents have the right to feel safe where they live and work. That peace of mind can’t happen under the current District Attorney,” he mentioned.
In line with Aitken, whereas crime statistics present legal exercise is declining, what’s really occurring is that fewer arrests are being made as regulation breakers go unpunished. Bristol County has fewer police than it used to, and fewer prosecutors, he mentioned.
On the similar time, Aitken mentioned, the incumbent district lawyer is spending his days hoping that no main crimes happen below his watch, when he must be proactively going after the criminals the residents of Bristol County see on the information and of their social media feeds.
“Hope is not a plan,” Aitken informed the Herald. “There needs to be leadership and a plan, not just hoping Bristol County is safe and that nothing terrible happens, but ensuring the safety of Bristol County residents.”
Aitken mentioned that it’s his army expertise, in addition to his a few years as a prosecutor, that makes him the proper man for the job. There are not any higher classes in management than these realized within the U.S. army, he mentioned, and it’s a talent set that the Military veteran plans to convey to an workplace that he thinks is in determined want of imaginative and prescient.
“I do think there is a lack of vision, a lack of vision being communicated to the public externally and internally to the people who work in that office. I think if you were to go to the district court on any given day, what is happening there is triage. You have a bunch of young, really smart, very capable prosecutors doing the very best they can to keep up with an absolutely overwhelming, massive caseload,” he mentioned.
He mentioned an enormous a part of the issue is that these attorneys don’t know what their boss’ “vision is for the organization” is likely to be. It’s exhausting then, he mentioned, for these devoted attorneys to do something besides present up for work, day after day, and undergo the identical drained motions.
They’re on “a treadmill, basically,” simply attempting to maintain up, Aitken mentioned.
“I feel terrible for a lot of these young prosecutors,” he mentioned. “I don’t feel like they have a leader at the very top who is trying to give them the resources, the personnel, and the training that they need.”
The Bristol County District Lawyer’s workplace, Aitken mentioned, has some supervising attorneys who’re superb at their jobs however don’t “have a seat at the table.”
Aitken mentioned that he’s looking for the Republican nomination regardless of going through an uphill climb in deep-blue Massachusetts, as a result of he feels that the conservative social gathering does a greater job empowering people to succeed, whereas the opposite aspect spends an excessive amount of effort attempting to persuade people who the federal government ought to remedy their issues.
“I don’t think of being a Republican as an advantage or a disadvantage — this is what I believe. Or, at least, this is the party that aligns most closely with what I believe,” he mentioned.
Large authorities that “expects people to rely on the government,” Aitken mentioned, has been the rule of the street in Massachusetts for years and hasn’t but produced the promised progress. To his reckoning, extra authorities intervention solely leads to a state of affairs the place individuals can’t succeed on their very own.
Republicans, he mentioned, imagine in empowering individuals to unravel their very own issues, “rather than government being the thing people rely on.”
Past that, he mentioned, it’s a very good time to run as a Republican. Individuals are trying across the nation and the state, he mentioned, and realizing that “Democratic policies have just not worked.”
A very good instance, he mentioned, is the state’s shelter disaster. The Bay State spent “millions upon millions,” Aiken mentioned, attempting to fulfill an unfunded mandate to accommodate an inflow of migrants. It’s a difficulty that impacted Bristol County immediately, he mentioned.
Hundreds of households got a spot to dwell, he mentioned, however with none considering finished as to how they might combine into “our schools and communities.”
“It’s kind of a betrayal of the hard working taxpayers of Massachusetts,” he mentioned.
It’s unclear whether or not the three-term Democrat incumbent DA is planning to hunt one other four-year time period.
Requests for remark with DA Quinn’s workplace weren’t returned, and makes an attempt to succeed in his marketing campaign workers had been unsuccessful. Marketing campaign finance reviews do present that after months of relative quiet, his marketing campaign took in $47,235.49 by way of June and July, and ended final month with $202,489.06 readily available.
When he final ran in 2022, there was no Republican candidate on the poll. Quinn was appointed as DA in 2015 by then Gov. Charlie Baker, after Sutter was elected as Mayor of Fall River. The state main is scheduled for September 15, 2026.
Quinn isn’t the one Bay State District Lawyer going through a challenger. Norfolk District Lawyer Michael Morrissey, whose workplace oversaw the extremely publicized, extremely costly, and finally unsuccessful prosecution of Karen Learn, has drawn at the very least three Democratic challengers to his job.
Democrats Jim Barakat, Craig MacLellan, and Djuna Perkins have all introduced their intentions to run towards Morrissey within the main subsequent fall. Barakat comes from a public protection background, whereas each MacLellan and Perkins have served within the Suffolk County District Lawyer’s Workplace.
