Some people just don't get a second chance. Such appears to be the case for former Riverside County Undersheriff Neil Lingle.
Lingle who last year quit his job as Undersheriff immediately after being passed over by the Board of Supervisors as the replacement for the suddenly and mysteriously resigning Sheriff Bob Doyle, decided to step up in the political world by running for a seat on the Palm Desert City Council.
Sources say that Lingle intended to use the seat to then run for higher office, either against Sheriff Stan Sniff or County Supervisor Roy Wilson, in the 2010 election. From either spot Lingle would be able to exact his revenge on anyone that did not support him as the Royal Doyle's replacement.
Lingle, a member of the Desert Sands Unified School District Board, attempted to win one of three seats that were up for election in this November's election. The three incumbents, Richard Kelly, Robert Spiegel, and Cindy Finerty all were seeking re-election. And all easily won re-election.
Finerty was the top vote getter with 22%. Spiegel finished second with 19%. Kelly, who has been serving on the Palm Desert City Council since the early 1980s, came in third with 17%.
Poor old Neil Lingle finished a weak fourth place with only 13% of the vote. One would think that with Lingle's law enforcement resume, his time on the school board, and the anti-incumbent tenor of politics in this election, that Lingle would have been a shoo-in. Such was not the case.
It seems that the Riverside Sheriffs Association foiled Lingle's plan to win a seat on the City Council.
The Riverside Sheriffs Association backed Finerty, Spiegel, and Kelly. With the RSA's support the three incumbents won re-election and Lingle was put out to pasture yet again.
The voters clearly did not understand how someone who spent so many years in the Sheriffs Department did not have the support of its deputies. And that reason alone seems to have been enough to keep Neil Lingle off the Palm Desert City Council, and thankfully so.
Can anyone confirm or deny that:
1. Capt. DiMaggio got the axe for attempting to hack into Valerie Hill's computer.
2. Federal agents raided the home of a Lt. last week.
3. Sheriff Sniff is weeding out everyone who got promoted after they made a hefty donation to Doyle's re-election campaign.
Just wondering.
Posted by: oldfart#1 | November 22, 2008 at 10:54 AM