When I announced my candidacy for the Democratic nomination in the new 9th Congressional District, I received calls from some people in the political establishment wondering why I would take on a sitting congressman in an open district, someone who has spent nearly his entire adult life in elective office. Those who know me as the Bristol County District Attorney didn’t need to ask. When I ran for district attorney in 2006, I saw a system around me that had become tolerant of violent crime; murders were left unsolved; illegal guns were streaming into our cities into the hands of criminals and the system that we depend upon to protect us was simply turning them back out into the street.
I believed that the citizens of Bristol County deserved a district attorney who was intolerant of crime and who would force the system to change so that people – not the system – came first. We cracked down on major drug dealers by prosecuting them instead of letting them plea bargain lighter sentences. We used court-ordered wiretaps to develop evidence and targeted gang leaders and worked within those gangs to give youthful offenders a different path away from a life of crime. And we went after illegal guns with a vengeance by using dangerousness hearings to keep gang members and others arrested with illegal guns locked up for 90 days while prosecutors quickly developed a case against them to increase the chances of keeping them off the streets.
I believed that the citizens of Bristol County deserved a district attorney who was intolerant of crime and who would force the system to change so that people – not the system – came first. We cracked down on major drug dealers by prosecuting them instead of letting them plea bargain lighter sentences. We used court-ordered wiretaps to develop evidence and targeted gang leaders and worked within those gangs to give youthful offenders a different path away from a life of crime. And we went after illegal guns with a vengeance by using dangerousness hearings to keep gang members and others arrested with illegal guns locked up for 90 days while prosecutors quickly developed a case against them to increase the chances of keeping them off the streets.
We have delivered on our promise to the people of Bristol County and now we are setting our sights on bringing that agenda for positive change to Washington, D.C. Our Congress was designed by our Founding Fathers to be the most representative system of government in the world, but it has become embroiled in deeply partisan politics fueled by seemingly limitless amounts of money that flow into campaigns.
We have a unique opportunity in the 9th Congressional District to elect someone who will truly put people over politics – someone who has lived in this district nearly his entire adult life. From Provincetown at the tip of Cape Cod to the City of Fall River in the western part of the district, we now have an opportunity fight for issues of common concern: Targeted economic development, protection of our commercial and recreational fisheries and more opportunities for our children through education, job training and affordable housing.
When I ran for public office for the first time at the age of 53, I promised I would exceed expectations and make our communities better than when I began. I promise you that I am not going to Washington, D.C. to blend in and go along just to get along. We have a great tradition of public service in Massachusetts exemplified by the late Senator Edward M. Kennedy and his brothers (and now an opportunity to send one of their grandsons to Congress along with us).
I will make you proud as your Congressman and I promise you that no one will work harder for his constituents than Sam Sutter.
We have a unique opportunity in the 9th Congressional District to elect someone who will truly put people over politics – someone who has lived in this district nearly his entire adult life. From Provincetown at the tip of Cape Cod to the City of Fall River in the western part of the district, we now have an opportunity fight for issues of common concern: Targeted economic development, protection of our commercial and recreational fisheries and more opportunities for our children through education, job training and affordable housing.
When I ran for public office for the first time at the age of 53, I promised I would exceed expectations and make our communities better than when I began. I promise you that I am not going to Washington, D.C. to blend in and go along just to get along. We have a great tradition of public service in Massachusetts exemplified by the late Senator Edward M. Kennedy and his brothers (and now an opportunity to send one of their grandsons to Congress along with us).
I will make you proud as your Congressman and I promise you that no one will work harder for his constituents than Sam Sutter.
