Don Anderson was declared the winner in the district attorney's race based on a preliminary count of ballots released early Wednesday morning by the Lake County Registrar of Voters.
Anderson took 7,597 votes, or 53.3 percent of the vote, compared with his challenger, local defense attorney Doug Rhoades, who garnered 6,663 votes, or 46.7 percent.
The registrar still has thousands of provisional and absentee ballots to count before certifying the election in the weeks ahead.
“I know how the Giants feel now,” said Anderson Wednesday. “I just feel pleased and delighted. It's hard to express it. I had such a great team behind me.”
He added, “This really was a team effort,” with many good people on his campaign committee, along with the support of friends and family.
Rhoades said Wednesday afternoon that, while he was obviously disappointed after 13 months of hard work on the campaign trail, he was grateful for the support he received.
“I'm very grateful to the 6,600 people who voted for us,” he said. “We ran a good campaign, we ran on issues, and I'm very thankful to the people of Lake County who gave us their support.”
He said of the campaign that it was “a pretty affirmative experience.”
Earlier on Wednesday Rhoades called and congratulated Anderson, and said he looked forward to working with him.
At his Wednesday Rotary meeting in Lakeport, Rhoades said fellow members sang, “For He's A Jolly Good Fellow.” The post-election show of support choked him up, he said.
Anderson said he hasn't yet made contact with outgoing District Attorney Jon Hopkins regarding the transition. He said he wants to begin closing down his private practice, including finishing and settling cases before the start of the year. He gets to work as district attorney Jan. 5.
During a debate on Sept. 30, Anderson had stated that he intended to keep Chief Deputy District Attorney Richard Hinchcliff in that spot for as long as Hinchcliff wanted the job.
Anderson is standing by that statement, noting that there are not going to be changes with the position in the near future “or maybe ever.”
“Rich is good at what he does, I plan to learn a lot off of Rich,” Anderson said. “I think we'll work real good together.”
Anderson also has begun looking at how to implement sentence bargaining, a practice both he and Rhoades promoted on the campaign trail.
Anderson said it's a decades-old practice that is used both for some kinds of felonies and all misdemeanor cases.
It allows defendants to know, going in, what their sentence will be, he said. Legal definitions explain that it allows defendants to work out agreements for lighter sentences in return for agreeing to a stated – not a reduced – charge.
While Lake County does use it for misdemeanors, the county hasn't adopted it for felonies. The practice is used in almost every county in California but Lake, Anderson said.
He said it will improve the process both for defendants and the system as a whole, through fewer cases going to court, less trial time and savings to taxpayers.
“It's just a fair way of doing it,” Anderson said. “We're just really catching up to what the rest of the state is doing.”
He plans to speak with district attorneys in other counties to see how it can be implemented, then he will meet with Stephen Carter of Lake Legal Defense and the county's judges.
“I don't see why we can't have a good draft of a sentence bargaining protocol three or four months from me taking office,” he said.
Getting other policies and procedures in place in the office “is going to take some time,” he said.
Anderson said a priority for him is opening a Clearlake office.
He plans to interview every District Attorney's Office employee to get to know their strengths, and from that process he plans to choose someone to assist him with opening the office in the south county.
From there, he intends to go to the Board of Supervisors for funding. He said he'll look first for existing government offices where they can locate, and if none are available he will look to rent in the private sector.
That process, Anderson said, “will be started right away, as soon as I find the right people to work on it.”
He also is beginning to form a citizens advisory committee, and plans to soon put out a press release seeking applicants.
“It's just my idea,” he said, noting that he doesn't know if it's being done by other district attorneys.
Anderson said he's looking for a diverse group of about 15 people to take part in what will be a volunteer, informal group. He's already had a lot of people expressing interest in the committee, which may be in place by the time he takes office in January.
E-mail Elizabeth Larson at
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