Lando Calrissian (played by Billy Dee Williams) first appears in The Empire Strikes Back as the administrator of Cloud City. Currently, “Lando” Voyles (played by Phoenix attorney Michael Voyles) is Sheriff Paul Babeu’s hand picked candidate for the top law administrator of Pinal County.
This modern-day “Lando” has joined with “Sheriff Paul” to run as a team. They share campaign funds, signs, advertising, etc. Team-member Voyles recently told the press, “The sheriff and prosecutor need to push in the same direction.”
He really said that. I did not make that up.
The county attorney’s job is not to “push in the same direction” with the sheriff. By now, “Lando” should know that the county attorney’s job is to secure and protect justice. Sometimes, that means pushing against a sheriff to keep him within those pesky constitutional constraints.
Babeu’s problem (one of them anyway) is that County Attorney James Walsh has been doing his job and prosecuting criminals while keeping the Sheriff within constitutional boundaries. While that didn’t stop the Sheriff from embarrassing Pinal County by trolling gay websites posting nude photos of himself on the internet, it did stop the flood of civil lawsuits such as Sheriff Joe Arpaio and Maricopa County have experienced.
“Sheriff Paul” would simply like to replace Walsh with his hand-picked boy so he can get the County Attorney’s office to cooperate with investigations of political enemies.
And that’s just a start. Babeu is also running a slate of his hand-picked candidates for almost every office in Pinal County government.
One guy running everything.
Now there’s a great American idea!
by Ed Barker
