Pubdate: Tue, 26 Sep 2006
Source: Times, The  (Munster IN)
Copyright: 2006 The Munster Times
Contact:  http://www.nwitimes.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/832
Author: Robyn Monaghan

DEMS BLAST GOP'S CAMPAIGN PROMISE

Porter County Politics:
Drug Enforcement Pledge Just A Distraction,  They Say

VALPARAISO - It's not the drugs -- it's the developers,  county
Democrats say.

It's also election season, and voters and Porter County  politicians
already are sparring to set the agenda for  November's contests.

County Republicans are off-message and uninformed about  who pulls the
Porter County purse springs, Democratic  commission President Bob
Harper said in response to a  Republican pledge to make funding drug
treatment and  enforcement a priority.

"Should the commissioners be concerned about the drug  problem? The
mailman should be concerned about the drug  problem," Harper told The
Times in an interview Friday.  "But the real issue is green space."

At a news conference Thursday, Republican candidates  listed funding
drug treatment and enforcement as one of  four election pledges to be
announced over the coming  few weeks. County commission candidate Mark
Sulski, a  Portage banker on the Porter Plan Commission and Park
Board, and Mike Herzog, a Valparaiso firefighter  running for the
county commission, lambasted the  current commission and council for
underfunding drug  enforcement and treatment efforts to battle the
county's heroin problem.

Democrat Dan Whitten, County Council president, said  the prosecutor's
office, which coordinates the county  drug task force, has not asked
the council to boost  financing for drug enforcement. All police and
sheriff's officers work on drug cases, not just the  three designated
to the task force, he said. Whitten, a  former police officer who is
not running for  re-election, favors putting money into drug treatment.

"You can put 500 policemen on the street and, if a  person has an
addiction, it isn't going to help them.  That person and that family
needs treatment," he said.

But Democrats aren't soft on drugs, Harper and Whitten
said.

In the early 1970s, Harper created the first-ever  undercover unit
when serving as prosecutor, he said,  and received a number of awards
for his work in  enforcing drug laws.

The County Council, which controls the county's budget,  and the
prosecutor's office have been controlled by  Republicans for years,
they said. Harper said County  Republican Chairman Chuck Williams
could use his  position on the Valparaiso City Council to request
money for more city-funded police officers to deal with  the drug problem.

Calling the news conference a "dog and pony show,"  Harper said the
county Republicans' vow to fund drug  treatment and enforcement is an
empty campaign promise  framed to distract voters from the real issues
facing  the county. Republicans, Harper said, "will not be  satisfied
until every square inch of Porter county is  paved over and there is a
subdivision on every corner."

Harper, who sits on the Plan Commission, was  instrumental in passing
the county's requirement that  20 percent of the area in subdivisions
be set aside for  open spaces.

"If we do not want every tree torn down and every bit  of greenspace
plowed under, we have to make provisions  now to set aside these areas
for future generations,"  he said.
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MAP posted-by: Derek