Sheriff Not Run Out of Town Can’t Be Proud

Mike Carona needs to sit down and have a pointed conversation.

With himself.

He needs to decide what kind of legacy he wants to leave as Orange County sheriff. Tuesday’s primary ensured that Carona will have a legacy -- he avoided a runoff and, barring the unforeseen, will be a three-term sheriff.

And having already reneged on a pledge not to run a third time, who’s to say he won’t run again and be a four-term sheriff? But even if he doesn’t, his 12 years in office will leave a mark.

What kind?

That will depend, it seems to me, on how Carona sees his first two terms. If he persists in thinking that other people sabotaged him (such as his original handpicked successor, George Jaramillo) and that his critics (such as the media) are out to get him, he’s going to have a long four years.

If, on the other hand, he accepts the reality that he’s the one who went outside the lines in naming Jaramillo (which he’s done, to an extent) and that he’s the one responsible for the ongoing questions about his campaign financing and other embarrassments, then he can set about repairing his image.

The first step is not to misread what Tuesday’s primary meant. I suppose Carona could say, or suggest, that avoiding a runoff indicates the public is happy with him. If that’s his analysis, then he may not be up to the task of fixing his problems.

Yes, he avoided a runoff -- by nine-tenths of 1%. Collecting 50.9% of the vote when you’ve been sheriff for eight years and have campaign funds far greater than your opponents is hardly vindication. Yes, he had three opponents who could have gobbled up votes, but none was well-known to the public as an alternative.

It’s one thing to dislike an incumbent, but before voting him out, voters need to know who the other guys are. And it’s worth noting that he had no opposition four years ago.

In short, if Carona sees his reelection as a stirring endorsement of his first two terms, he’s deluding himself. And it doesn’t bode well for a turnaround.

My more negative readers might think that eight years is enough time to identify what kind of public official he is. They could rightly argue that Carona has already made his own bed.

Hard to argue, but I’m more charitable than that. I’m from the Bruce Springsteen school of redemption, even if the Boss thinks it’s rock ‘n’ roll that redeems.

If Carona were a complete miscreant, I’d have no hope. But he seems to have enough good instincts -- progressive thoughts on drug treatment and disadvantaged kids, for example -- to become the sheriff his supporters thought he could be.

That stuff sounds boring, but it’s what his job is about. It’s not about fundraisers, getting wined and dined by influence peddlers and turning the office into a fiefdom.

Those are the pitfalls that plague some longtime incumbents; they are exactly the kinds of things Carona warned about when he said he’d step down after a second term.

Now, he needs a third term -- to make up for the first two.

On this, the first week of the rest of his political life, let’s be hopeful. Let’s hope he’s disappointed that he’s disappointed so many people and that he becomes the down-to-earth, enlightened guy we thought we were getting in 1998.

There’s work to do. Despite the huge advantage of incumbency, Carona didn’t get his own department’s endorsement, and he barely got one from county Republican officials. And on Tuesday he barely got it from voters. Meanwhile, various legal wheels are in motion elsewhere that could grind him down.

A man capable of honest reflection ought to figure out that doesn’t translate to a conspiracy. It translates to mistakes made but a chance at redemption.

Nobody needs sappy mea culpas from Carona. All we need is some soul-searching -- the kind a professed man of faith ought to know all about.