Excerpted from The Sacramento Bee
By Julie Johnson
September 22, 2009

Five minutes before Sheriff John McGinness endorsed his No. 2 leader in the department – Capt. Scott Jones – to succeed him, former Sheriff Lou Blanas e-mailed the media announcing he was throwing his support to Capt. Jim Cooper.

Besides trying to steal the thunder from McGinness and Jones, Blanas was putting to rest Monday a grass-roots movement in the department to draft him to run for the job himself.

More than 350 staff – among a department of nearly 2,000 – signed a petition endorsing Blanas for sheriff in August. In the petition, supporters said Blanas, who served as sheriff from 1998 to 2006, had the experience necessary to ease the department's "dire straits."

Blanas originally said he wouldn't rule out a third term as sheriff, but Monday acknowledged political realities: his age and lack of desire to make a long-term commitment to the job.

"The public sector is having some tough times with layoffs and there are much more treacherous roads ahead of us regarding the budget," Blanas said. "The person that gets in there now needs to have an eight-year commitment to the job.

"Plus, I've been retired for three years. I'm 63 years old. It's a young man's job."

Sheriff McGinness said the tough budget issues facing the department prompted him to endorse Jones over anybody else for the job.

"The county coffers are, frankly, dry," McGinness said at Jones' 10:30 a.m. news conference to announce his candidacy.

Given the "economic crisis, the reality of prisoner releases, I was looking for someone who can bring character and leadership," McGinness said.

With that, Sacramento voters on Monday were given at least two choices for the county's top elective law enforcement job. The election will be in June.

"It looks like Sacramento County has a real race on its hands," said Gary Dietrich, a Sacramento political analyst. "But there's going to be one issue right now: money" – as in the budget.

The candidates pledged their readiness to head a cash-strapped department that had to lay off more than 120 sworn deputies this summer.

Jones said he would continue in the direction McGinness has taken the department.

"The Sheriff's Department had suffered from a perception problem, and John McGinness has brought that around," said Jones, who has worked in the department for 20 years. "I like that and I'll continue with that."

Jones said he was put in charge of the jail to address complaints of inmate abuse and high suicide rates that had occurred when Blanas was sheriff.

"The Blanas administration handled it differently," he said.

Jones said he would make the department and its decisions more accessible to the public using Twitter and other online tools.

Cooper has worked for the department 25 years, and currently commands the Sacramento Valley Hi-Tech Crimes Task Force, which investigates Internet crimes against children and identity theft. A member of the Elk Grove City Council, Cooper twice served as the suburb's mayor.

Cooper said Monday that the department lost out on federal dollars this year, and that he'd place a priority on lobbying for federal funding and applying for grants.

"Right now I think the residents of Sacramento County are looking for experienced leadership and fiscal responsibility," Cooper said.

In endorsing Cooper, Blanas cited his political savvy. "The hardest part of being sheriff is being a politician, and I think Cooper has much more experience in that area," he said.

Several other major contenders may join the race, including former Sacramento Police Chief Albert Nájera, who said he's "still actively looking at running for the position."

Nájera is currently general manager for Delgata, an information technology firm in Sacramento. He said he would bring a "unique combination of many years of law enforcement experience at the highest levels and also quite a bit of recent experience in the private sector in the IT world."

"It's not a question of whether I can do this, it's a question of whether it's something I'd like to do personally," he said.

Leonard Padilla, a bounty hunter in Sacramento, said he might run as well, though he may lack the required police certification for training.

Barbara O'Connor, professor of communications at California State University, Sacramento, said the two official candidates of the moment represent a "passing of the torch to the next generation" within the department.

Political analyst Dietrich said there's likely to be "a lot of posturing out there in the next 30 days or so to see who's in, who's out."

"Is there a de facto successor out there?" Dietrich said. "Today proves no, there isn't."