Sen Ken Stolle, flanked by public safety professionals, elected officials, and citizens, launched his bid for Virginia Beach Sheriff and targeted right into his opponent’s campaign.
Stolle talked of his public safety record of abolishing parole, creating truth in sentencing and “three strikes and you’re out”.
Stolle told a story of Virginia before that time – how a jury member told him that they put a criminal away for 20 years and how it pained Stolle to tell her that with the guidelines, he’d be out in 6. Stolle championed changes to those guidelines in the Virginia Senate.
Stolle said his Democratic opponent wants to reverse truth-in-sentencing by deciding as Sheriff how much time someone should serve behind bars, whether the judge and jury put them there or not.
From a WAVY-TV 10 story, “Captain Bell would expand the use of electronic monitoring devices.”
How a Sheriff has the authority to decide a criminal can leave jail with monitoring when the judge sent him there is beyond me, and apparently Stolle thinks that proposal reverses the public safety progress made in Virginia since the 90s.
Mayor Will Sessoms delivered the “unanimous support” of City Council for Ken Stolle. Sessoms joked how impossible it is for all 11 Council members to agree on anything, but they all support Stolle. Rosemary Wilson, Jim Wood, and Ron Villanueva stood by his side.
Joining Stolle was outgoing Sheriff Paul Lanteigne, current Commonwealth’s Attorney Harvey Bryant, Clerk of Court Tina Sinnen, and Treasurer John Atkinson, plus Del. Sal Iaquinto, Del. Barry Knight, and School Board member Patrick Salyer. They all joined the heads of the FOP and Firefighters organizations and the large crowd of citizens assembled for the kickoff.
As Ken Stolle said, “Let the campaign begin!”
