Star endorsed right man, didn’t back it very well

While I do believe Northern Star’s endorsement of Ron Matekaitis for DeKalb County State’s Attorney does make logical sense, I do not believe the Northern Star keenly expressed that logic which prompted Ms. Robinson’s letter.

Also, if Ms. Robinson would do her homework with regards to the candidates who are running for the office and the responsibilities of the state’s attorney’s office, she would be able to see, or at least sense, the logic. First of all, it needs to be made clear that the competition is not to vote for the “top lawyer in the county,” as stated in Ms. Robinson’s letter (but not in the Perspective article), but to vote for the best lawyer in the county to run the state’s attorney’s office, which includes a professional staff of eight assistant state’s attorneys and eight support staff. The position of the DeKalb County state’s attorney is comparable to one who runs a business or is the principal of a school, a fire chief or police commander. They take their experience they have accumulated over the years and use it to protect and look out for the best interest of the citizens they represent, be responsible for a budget and manage and teach their staffs.

Second, it should be noted that Mr. Campbell is not the “only lawyer” as stated in Ms. Robinson’s letter. Mr. Matekaitis is also a lawyer who earned his degree at NIU’s College of Law. He also garnered valuable experience in governmental and administrative skills by being elected alderman and appointed city attorney in DeKalb prior to his election as state’s attorney. This useful experience of Mr. Matekaitis, along with the lack of experience of Mr. Campbell of running any type of office, should have been expressed in more detail by the Northern Star’s editorial board.

Any citizen who will take just a few minutes to look into the experience and knowledge necessary to effectively run the DeKalb County state’s attorney’s office will know that their vote should be cast for Mr. Matekaitis.

Don Noesen

NIU alumnus