This is a political advertisement paid for and approved by Sandra Downs (NPA) for Sheriff.

Gadfly Enters Sheriff’s Race
BY TIMOTHY O’HARA Citizen Staff

Cudjoe Key resident and mother of six Sandra Downs believes an “outsider” needs to take over the reins of the Monroe County Sheriff’s Office. She believes she is the outsider for the job and has filed to run for the seat that will become vacant in January 2009. Sheriff Rick Roth, who has been sheriff for 18 years, has announced he will not run again. Downs never has been employed by the Sheriff’s Office or any other law enforcement agency, either as a civilian or sworn officer, but she argues that it is not necessary because it is a management position. She said she has become “very educated about the laws,” and has management skills from working with nonprofit groups in the Miami- Dade area before coming to the Florida Keys seven years ago. “People have expressed in recent elections that they want change and they want different choices, and I represent that,” Downs said. “I have planned doing this for about a year…This is a management position. The sheriff is not the guy on the street, but he or she is the person who manages the department.” She said she immediately would cut the sheriff’s $118,000 annual salary by $40,000. The state actually dictates the sheriff’s salary to the county, which funds it. She also said she would implement a countywide citizens law enforcement review board to investigate “unlawful activities” and “negligence,” and hire an accountant and attorney to review financial records and no-bid contracts. Downs openly accuses the Sheriff’s Office of favoritism and corruption. “The damage cannot be undone by people on the inside,” she said. “My interest is in fairness. That is why I am running. The county commissioner and the shrimper in Stock Island should receive the same level of justice.” Downs is a real estate agent who owns her own tree service company called Tarzan’s Tree Care. Downs faces opposition from sheriff’s Capt. Bob Peryam.

Gadfly Definition : 2. A provocateur. Different from the first definition as this one usually implies that the person who is the gadfly in this case is causing others to think or is, in some other way, being constructive by being constant and unignorable. Socrates, for example, Socrates is said to have described himself as a gadfly to the Athenian state. Modern day activists could be referred to as gadflies to their opposition.

Gadfly Socrates

Socrates' pursuit of virtue and his strict adherence to truth clashed with the current course of Athenian politics and society. But perhaps the most historically accurate of Socrates' offences to the city was his position as a social and moral critic. Rather than upholding a status quo and accepting the development of immorality within his region, Socrates worked to undermine the collective notion of "might makes right" so common to Greece during this period.

Plato refers to Socrates as the "gadfly" of the state, insofar as he irritated the establishment with considerations of justice and the pursuit of goodness. His attempts to improve the Athenian's sense of justice may have been the source of his execution.

Socrates' paradoxical wisdom made the prominent Athenians he publicly questioned look foolish, turning them against him and leading to accusations of wrongdoing. Socrates defended his role as a gadfly until the end.

Contact Sandy Sandy@sandyforsheriff.com