Tuesday, January 26, 2016

Prosecutor uses staff for politics

Carroll's power base began in his office, with around fifty deputy prosecutors plus an equal number of supporting staff. After purging the staff he inherited in 1948, he subsequently hired loyal Republicans as replacements, enhancing his power in the Republican Party. With an eye toward reelection, he chose among Republicans on the basis of ethnic identity and political connections.

Carroll made further political use of his staff after he hired them, insisting they remain politically loyal to him and work in his campaigns. . . . Carroll told one deputy, "Look, this is a political office. You want to work for me, you work for me twenty-four hours a day. I want you to work on my campaign. Donate as much oney as you can to it, because when I don't have a job, you don't have a job."
Christopher T. Bayley, Seattle Justice: The Rise and Fall of the Police Payoff System in Seattle (Seattle: Sasquatch Books, 2015), ch.3. (Charles O. Carroll was King County Prosecuting Attorney 1948-70.)
 Chuck Carroll's idea of "diversity" had been like filling a twelve-crayon Crayola box: choose one of each color or ethnic group. He liked to boast this office was a mini-United Nations. but he used his deputies to garner political support from Seattle's orgnized racial and ethnic communities, not to reach out to them.
Id., ch. 7.

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