There is one negative when you elect someone to another elective office who is already doing a great job in the current elective office they hold. Voters have to replace them. This is the case with Sheriff-elect Bobby Rader. Electing someone to do the job he was doing as Justice of the Peace will be quite a task. It was not mere political rhetoric that pointed to Rader’s regular 5:00 AM visits to the jail to take care of county business. He was an excellent judge who combined justice and mercy in a way that made our community a better place to live in.
The voters have culled through a large group of candidates who wanted to fill Rader’s shoes and are down to two. Darla Diaz and Stephen Hebert are both very qualified.
Darla Diaz’s knowledge of how to run the JP office comes from being the right arm of the last two men to hold that position. Diaz was the administrative assistant to both Judge Sonny Loftin and Judge Bobby Rader. She has over two decades of observing and helping the business surrounding precinct 1 Justice of the Peace. It would be difficult for anyone to argue that she is not better prepared to step into the JP #1 job than anyone else. There are two disclaimers concerning Mrs.Diaz we want readers to be aware of:
1) As LD posted before, one of our contributors considers themselves a friend of Diaz.
2) In the primary election Liberty Dispatch (and perhaps every media outlet) was bombarded with e-mails and comments about the details leading to Danny Diaz’s (Darla’s husband) resignation and we posted a story on it because so many wrote in about it. We will not revisit the specifics of that subject or post comments on that topic. The subject has been well covered and the voters have chosen Diaz as one of two people to consider for this office despite any problems her husband may or may not have had.
Stephan Hebert did not enter the JP race originally. He signed up to run during the extended time that was caused by the three judge panel in San Antonio. Nevertheless he was the top vote getter on primary election night. Stephen has several years of law enforcement under his belt and he too would be easy to get up to speed in the necessary knowledge to run this office. The state has a school that will provide training for whoever wins this office and Stephen is well capable of doing a great job. Hebert’s family is well known for all of the help they give to worthy causes in this community. The Heberts are a “roll up their sleeves and pitch in” kind of family and voters can expect Stephen would be the same kind of judge. His father, John Hebert, is the owner of the Chevron fuel distributorship that is near the Trinity River bridge on the south side of highway 90 in Liberty.
