Jerry Airola? Yep, he's a cop
Inside Liberty Watch Today - July 27, 2006

A headline in Tuesday's Review Journal reads, "Airola says he's a cop, but he's not." 

And that headline represents the worst of the Metro good old boy network which thinks that it should dictate to us mere mortal taxpayers who should be elected the next Sheriff. It was written by a nameless, faceless headline writer who could just as easily have written, "Airola may or may not beat wife." Both headlines are technically true but calculated to discredit Sheriff Candidate Jerry Airola.

Here's an idea.

Why don't we just hold a private poll of Metro's top management and dispense with this unseemly election process altogether?

That is certainly the way the so-called leadership at Metro and their friends would like things to be. But then, that's what the big boys in the state would like to do with the governor's election, too.

The average cop working for the Las Vegas Metropolitan Police Department is way above average.

They deserve a leader who is also way above average.

We believe Jerry Airola is that leader.

Airola, according to private polling we have seen, is running neck and neck with Under sheriff Doug Gillespie heading into the August 15th primary.

We have nothing against Gillespie. Although we would observe that a vote for Gillespie is a vote for more of the same and metro is a police department which is good but not great.

But we have a chance to make a radical change for the better by hiring a real CEO for our half a BILLION dollar a year business and as good a cop as Gillespie's career has shown him to be, a Sheriff isn't a policeman. He is-at the Metro level-a CEO who must run a business whose customers are each and every one of us.

Airola built a hundred million dollar business, Silver State Helicopters, in less than 10 years.

Which, of course, has led Gillespie's friends-notably one well known television reporter-to ask, do you want a millionaire as a sheriff, the implication being that millionaires cannot be trusted as can poorer folks.

Well, now, let's look at some of the poor folks we have elected to public office and how they have fared.

Erin Kenny will be headed to prison soon-to serve not nearly enough time-for getting rich by taking bribes from Mike Galardi.

Since we don't have co-ed prisons, Dario Herrera won't be her cell-mate but he'll have plenty of time to explain why he needed all that cash to his probable cell-mate, Bubba.

Lance Malone was poor. Maybe he'll change his name to Bubba to fit into his prison fraternity.

Frances Deane has been indicted for trying to get rich by selling out her office.

We can go on, but our point is that not having been successful-which is certainly a common thread among those we have just named, is not a qualification.

And, frankly, the nice thing about having a self-made Sheriff is that he doesn't have to spend his term in office dancing to the tune of big campaign contributors so that he can get a job when he decides to retire.

It should also be noted that Airola's company does zero business with Clark County.

All that said, what really intrigues us about Airola is his willingness to try new ideas-a police auxiliary, for example, such as the one which has been so successful in Phoenix.

As for the potshots from the RJ, you should read the news story closely-Airola looks pretty good after you get past the headline.

Most reporters and columnists in a daily newspaper-even one as conservative as the RJ-cannot balance their own check books, so they have a large distrust for business which comes in handy when you want to poormouth a successful businessman running for Sheriff.

The fact is that Airola is a) successful, b) a leader, c) has been a cop and, d) wants to give his time back to the people who helped him become successful.

Why is "d" a good thing when that person is appointed by the establishment (Jim Rogers), but a bad thing when that person runs for office against the wishes of the establishment?

The answer is that we should send those boys a message and vote for Jerry Airola for Sheriff.

FRED WEINBERG

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George E. Harris, Liberty Watch Editor

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