Candidate Bruce Ruff fires the first shots in the 2010 Sheriff's race

This afternoon Bruce Ruff, candidate for San Diego County's Sheriff, published two attack/opinion pieces back to back at a way-off-the-radar website, faxts.com, which identifies itself as a news site (but lacks the common trappings of a news site, showing only ten articles and one paid advertiser, but hey, who cares! This is still news!). This salvo of political attacks, aimed at what retired Deputy Ruff probably considers his most significant challengers, did a pretty good job of getting some solid hits on both Duffy and Gore, as well as the Deputy Sheriff's Association. Time for all candidates to dawn some level-4 armor!

Bruce Ruff has spent the better part of the last ten years as the sole challenger candidate for the office of the Sheriff in San Diego County. Election after election, his support base grew, but not enough to dethrone incumbent Sheriff Kolender. Now that Kolender has retired, leaving his legacy to his buddy and hand-pick successor Bill Gore, additional challengers, knowing this will be their best opportunity to get this coveted position, have joined Deputy Ruff in the race for the Sheriff's badge. I get the feeling from watching Ruff at a few of the debates last year that he's not to thrilled to have all these "jonney-come-latelys" hurting his best chance yet of acquiring this long sought after post. These two articles from Ruff pretty much confirm that.

In Ruff's first article (they were published only two minutes apart), titled: "Why does it matter?" he first hammers unions and their undue influence in National politics. He then narrows the scope to the local level, taking the readers though the details of the Deputy Sheriff's Association and its relationship with candidate Duffy. He does a pretty good job of detailing a reasonable concern for potential undue influence by the union-like DSA and politicized candidate Duffy, should he win the election. He also points out the risk of term limits for board of supervisor positions, having to do again with union influence and funding.

Ruff's second article reviews the history of the cronyism involved with Gore's appointment as interim Sheriff. He of course had to outline Gore's most controversial issues involving Ruby Ridge, the resulting Senate hearings and then the later 9/11 terrorist "miss" by Gore when heading the San Diego FBI Office.

The biggest impact from today's publishing from Deputy Ruff might have less to do with his direct attacks, then his sideline disclosures; He is not a fan of Unions, Socialism or Communism, nor politicians that pander to those influences (naming President Obama by name). While these might seem like minor disclosures, they actually provide potential voters with critical between-the-lines information regarding who Bruce Ruff really is. By identifying himself today as true political conservative (which is both risky, yet honorable), he has moved himself closer to voters who might otherwise be voting for self-identified conservative candidate Jay LaSuer, while at the same time, pushing candidate Jim Duffy and his DSA endorsement further to the left to stand closer to Bill Gore. This could result in a better showing at the June ballot box for Ruff, potentially securing himself a seat in the game of musical chairs for the likely run-off election.

While Bruce Ruff may be a little rough around the edges, his audacity to publish his own conservative beliefs will certainly garner some additional votes from those who have had enough of the influences of socialism over the last year.