Duffy Accused of Unfairly Applying Pressure in Race

A candidate for San Diego County sheriff said Tuesday that outgoing Sheriff John Duffy is improperly pressuring the Deputy Sheriff’s Assn. to quickly endorse his hand-picked successor, even before the candidate filing deadline next month.

Sheriff’s Capt. Jim Roache, one of six candidates for this year’s election, said he has been told by a source within the DSA leadership that Duffy is exerting “undue influence” on the deputies group to gain the endorsement of Assistant Sheriff Jack Drown by next week.

However Roache declined to identify his source, and also said that he did not know what Duffy is threatening to do to the DSA leadership if it fails to support Drown.

But, Roache said, Duffy has already tainted the endorsement process, and therefore the DSA should remain neutral in the race. The primary election will be in June.

“This process is a sham,” he said at a press conference called shortly before he was to undergo a candidate interview Tuesday with the DSA’s political action committee.

“It insults the deputies who belong to the DSA. It insults the candidates who are in this race. It insults the public which has seen too much arrogance of power in (the Duffy) administration.”

Neither Duffy nor Drown could be reached for comment Tuesday.

But DSA president Skip Murphy said that Roache was wrong in asserting that Duffy “has made comments to us about any type of endorsement.”

“He may have that as his perception of what’s happening,” Murphy said, “but I’m here to tell you that there’s been no pressure from the sheriff. There’s been no back-door politicking or anything else like that. What we do, we will do in the most professional way and in the most up-front way that we can.”

But Roache said he was notified only on Monday that he would be interviewed by the DSA on Tuesday. He said he immediately thought it seemed too soon for such an interview.

He said he became even more suspicious when his unnamed source told him that the interviews were being held now because Duffy is pressuring the DSA, to which most deputies in the department belong, for a formal endorsement of Drown by next week. He said his source said Duffy wanted the early endorsement to come before the Feb. 7 deadline for candidates to file notices of intent to seek the sheriff’s office.

“This is another step by Sheriff Duffy to maintain control of the department,” Roache said.

However Murphy said the DSA has yet to determine when it will make an endorsement, adding that the group is conducting candidate interviews now only “to get a jump on things.”

“We know who some of the main players are going to be, so we’re talking to them now,” Murphy said.

Duffy, who has been sheriff since 1971, had originally said he would seek an unprecedented sixth term this year. But in December, after intense media scrutiny about his management of the department, he abruptly announced that he was withdrawing from the race.