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Gallegos names new campaign manager

Alison Sterling Nichols has replaced Richard Salzman as the campaign manager for District Attorney Paul Gallegos for his 2006 re-election campaign.

“I’ve always participated in the campaigns of issues that are important in my community,” Nichols said.

Nichols, 38, a resident of Westhaven, met Gallegos last year while working on his campaign through efforts to mobilize people to reject the recall, Nichols said.

“Paul really honestly sees that all are equal in the eyes of the law,” Nichols said. “I feel that he possesses integrity for holding a position where he makes decisions based on the law and not his personal opinions. I want someone in office who has that solid of a foundation of integrity.”

Dikeman disputes his boss's performance record at press conference

Humboldt County Deputy District Attorney Worth Dikeman held a press conference on Friday to address a local media report regarding staff turnover in the office of District Attorney Paul Gallegos as well as Gallegos’ job performance assessment.

“It was reported that seven attorneys have left the office which is not quite correct; in fact, fourteen attorneys have left the office,” Dikeman said. “To be fair, some of them left between the time he was elected and the time he was sworn in and one of them was only an intern, but a mass exodus like that is unprecedented.”

Both Dikeman and Gallegos have announced their intentions to run for office in the June primary election.

Let the battle begin

EUREKA -- Deputy District Attorney Worth Dikeman, in his first significant barrage since declaring his candidacy last year, took issue Friday with crime figures touted by his incumbent opponent and said the loss of attorneys from the DA's office is unprecedented in the county's history.

In a recent interview, District Attorney Paul Gallegos said that violent crime in Humboldt County is at its lowest level since 1990. He released statistics this week to try to back up that claim.

Gallegos releases stats to back up claims

Humboldt County District Attorney Paul Gallegos recently provided statistics he claims back up statements that his office has been doing “more with less.”

”Since I've been in office, Humboldt County has experienced the lowest rate of violent crime since 1990,” Gallegos stated in an e-mail last week. “In addition, based on the information I have from the Department of Corrections, we also have had Humboldt County's highest level of prison commitments since I've been in office.”

Statistics from 2005 were not available, but the statistics Gallegos provided show that since 2001, violent crime was lowest in 2003, with 394 cases. In 2001 there were 543 cases, in 2002 there were 504 cases and in 2004 there 428 cases.

Gallegos names new campaign manager

EUREKA -- Alison Nichols, best known for her trip last year to join Camp Casey in Texas and protest the war in Iraq, has been named new campaign manager for District Attorney Paul Gallegos.

Nichols, 38, has volunteered on Gallegos' campaign in the past, and said she was honored to help him in his re-election effort to win a second term. The Nichols appointment represents some of the first public activity in the Gallegos' campaign.

”He stands for the same things that I stand for and I feel like I share values with him,” she said.

Community safety, she said, ranks high on his list.

Gallegos: Doing 'more with less'

EUREKA -- District Attorney Paul Gallegos recently lost his seventh attorney since taking office in January 2003, but he said it hasn't affected prosecutions.

”In fact, since I've been in office, Humboldt County has experienced the lowest rate of violent crime since 1990,” Gallegos stated in an e-mail. “In addition, based on the information I have from the Department of Corrections, we also have had Humboldt County's highest level of prison commitments since I've been in office.”

There are currently two open positions, which Gallegos anticipates filling “relatively soon.”

Currently, seven deputy district attorneys have been with the office longer than three years: Andrew Isaac, Maggie Flemming, Max Cardoza, Stacey Eades, Wes Keat, Worth Dikeman and Zachary Bird.

New Deputy DA Schwartz excited about working for Gallegos

Although he debated moving his private practice to Humboldt County, San Francisco-based attorney Jeffrey Schwartz decided he would rather work for Humboldt County District Attorney Paul Gallegos.

For the past year and a half, Schwartz said he and his wife have spent only weekends, breaks and holidays together while she has worked as a lecturer at Humboldt State University and he at his private practice in the Bay Area.

“Part of our plan was she was going to teach up here and we were going to sort of commute,” he said. “It kind of worked out … but we have a kid now so that’s really the difference. … We needed to be in the same place. I just (kept) imagining if I was in trial (in San Francisco) three or four months at a time. … I didn’t want to do that.”

Gallegos defends record, looks ahead

Since leaving his career as a defense attorney to become Humboldt County district attorney in 2002, Paul Gallegos has had his share of ups and downs while in office.

He’s now more than halfway through his first term as DA and the challenges to his leadership and the decisions he’s made while in office have not subsided.

“What I bring or what I hope to bring to this office is at the end of the day, you may not like me, you may disagree with me but you’ll say, ‘you know what, he stood up for what his beliefs were,’” Gallegos said during a recent interview in his office.

Gallegos said he has to have the courage to stand up for his beliefs even though “politics” sometimes makes it difficult.