Delbridge running for District Attorney
By Steve Herring
Published in News on October 18, 2014 10:34 PM
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News-Argus/MELISSA KEY
Assistant District Attorney Matthew Delbridge is running for the post District Attorney Branny Vickory will retire from this year.
Matt Delbridge admits to being a reluctant candidate for district attorney. But after serving 31 years as an assistant district attorney, Delbridge said he could not just walk away from his obligations to the office.
It was almost four years ago that District Attorney Branny Vickory, a Democrat, called Delbridge, a Republican, into his office and told him he would not seek re-election.
"He suggested that I run, and my initial reaction was, 'I don't think I care to do that,'" Delbridge said. "I thought about it, and there were two people that I spoke with about whether or not they would consider running, whom I would feel very comfortable in working for, people that I respected. When they decided not to run, I felt it was my obligation to do it."
Delbridge, 57, said he understands, but does not particularly like, the partisan nature of the race. Judges are elected non-partisan. But the district attorney race most often pits a Republican against a Democrat.
"That is the way it is," Delbridge said "But I think this (office) is different. The district attorney position, it shouldn't be like that."
Delbridge, long-known as a tough prosecutor, is facing Democrat Terry Light, who also is an assistant district attorney, in the Nov. 4 election.
Until Friday, he was focused on a murder trial and campaigned during lunch -- a consequence, he said, of a more than full schedule in the district attorney's office.
Delbridge said he believes his sense of duty is what makes him the right person for the job.
"I think I am doing it for the right reasons," he said. "It is not for personal advancement. It is just that I am utterly sincere about my willingness to do what it takes to try to protect the public."
If he does get the job, Delbridge said he has some very good role models to pattern himself after -- both successful and well-respected district attorneys.
"I don't have this grand vision because I have worked for two of the best district attorneys in the state, especially my first one, Don Jacobs," Delbridge said. "With that degree of leadership, I don't think I can do anything to top that."
Delbridge said he is not a good political campaigner because he makes no promises.
"I am not a member of that club because I will not pay the initiation fee, which is favors," he said. "I have never been that way."
He said he believes in a tough, no-nonsense approach when it comes to his job -- and added that his first obligation is to the community he has sworn to protect and to the victims whom he fights for in the courtroom.
Justice, not influence, is why he is running, he said.
And he has been careful, he said, as a high-profile prosecutor, to separate his work from his campaigning -- and, he said, he never has and never will make any deals or alliances to win votes.
"That is what sets me apart," Delbridge said. "I guess that I can continue to do what I have always done, which is to be fair and even-handed to everybody. Everybody gets treated the same way.
"I don't owe anybody anything, except my parents."
Delbridge said he believes he has a level of independence that allows him the luxury of doing what is actually, in his view, the right thing to do without any consideration of political consequences.
"I guess I am like an old codger who can say what he wants to say after 30 years," he said. "If they don't want me, that's fine."
Campaigning, he said, isn't easy.
"The hardest thing about politics is this self-promotion stuff," he said. "It is a necessary evil, but I hate it. It is the opposite of what my personality is and that is another reason that politics has never been something that I want to do."
In the end, the decision for district attorney will come down to who will do a better job. And Delbridge said he wants voters to know that he understands the responsibility and the hard work required to serve as their district attorney.
"I am hard working and dedicated," he said. "Some people like to stand in front of a jury, like me, and do a job, and some people like to stand in front of a civic group and talk about what a job is. I think that is probably the biggest difference between the two people (running)."
"I just feel drawn to it," he said of the office of district attorney. "I guess it pleases me to fulfill a function and to do something that is meaningful. It is somebody who likes to protect other people, who is a hard worker and dedicated."
Delbridge said his father told him if he was doing a good deed and more than two people knew about it, then he was probably doing it for the wrong reason.
"So true," he said.
If elected, Delbridge said his duties would change to being the administrator of the district attorney's office, but he said he would continue to prosecute cases.
"That is all that I want to do," he said. "Add to that you have personnel. You have dealings with the public.
"You have all of these overlays to take you away from what the real mission is, which is putting the worst people in prison."
Those are the "necessary evils," of the bureaucracy, he said.
"A good thing about being the boss is that you can do what you want, and I am going to be doing what I want, which is trying murder cases," Delbridge said.