To the editor:

The colossal, in-your-face “Keep Tom” signs that stalk Route 6 in Dartmouth tell us a lot about Sheriff Hodgson.  These signs–many on for-lease commercial properties—are meant to  project an aura of power and permanence around the incumbent sheriff–an image he seems to delight in cultivating.  The message is ‘I am invincible’. It is at its root an appeal grounded in the macho notion that the sheriff is as big and bad as his signage, that his re-election is inevitable. 

By contrast, the Paul Heroux campaign has embraced conventional yard signs, sprouting by the hundreds in the yards of “grassroots” supporters. If elected, Heroux will carry this down-to-earth approach over to the job–a welcome departure from Hodgson’s all-about-me, performative style. A workhorse and not a showhorse, Heroux will focus intently on the needs of the key stakeholders–the public, correctional staff and incarcerated people.  Under a Sheriff Paul Heroux administration, running the jail efficiently, safely and humanely and providing a wide array of rehabilitation opportunities for inmates will at last become a reality.  

Harry C. Bichsel,

Dartmouth