This election directly affects you. Durham District Attorney candidate Lewis Cheek is on the ballot.
Cheek wants your vote because he strongly believes that the removal of current District Attorney Mike Nifong from office is what is best for the Durham community. He wants to win. He wants justice. And so should you.
Should Cheek choose not to accept the district attorney position when he is elected, it is true that the governor would appoint someone to fill the position. We do not believe that an appointment by Gov. Mike Easley will cure all evils. The governor's appointment will not be the panacea.
What we do believe is that Easley will appoint someone who will critically examine each of the cases against David Evans, Trinity '06, Collin Finnerty and Reade Seligmann, members of the 2005-2006 men's lacrosse team, dismiss those charges that do not have merit and pursue any that do.
Ethical Durham believes that the governor will appoint someone who will not turn a blind eye to the discriminating police policy that targets Duke students-a policy that encourages disproportionate arrests, warrantless raids and criminal records for anyone who attends Duke University, just because that person is a Duke student.
We do not support District Attorney candidate Steve Monks. Write-in candidates virtually never win. Voting trends tell us that a write-in would need 25,000 people to handwrite their name on the ballot in this election.
Monks campaigned hard for the 6,300 signatures necessary to be on the ballot. He could not even do that. He cannot hope to get 25,000 votes as a write-in on Election Day.
In more than 1,300 Senate elections since 1913 only one write-in candidate has won (Strom Thurman in 1954) and in more than 20,000 House elections since 1900 only five write-in candidates have won. In fact, on the face of it for all we know, Monks is deliberately working to split the change vote.
It has been suggested in these pages that you should not vote because the administration of the District Attorney's office does not directly affect the Duke student community.
When the history of this episode is written, we hope that Duke Students, faculty and staff will be proud of their actions on Election Day. This election is one of historical dimensions. Do the right thing. Recall Nifong, restore justice in Durham, vote Cheek.
Casey Shanley
Board Member, Duke Students for an Ethical Durham
This opinion is not authorized by any candidate
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