Stan speaks out: comment.

• Author: Levco, Stan
• Position: On prosecutor elections

I AM RUNNING for my sixth term as prosecutor. You might assume that one who has been elected five previous times would enjoy the process or at the very minimum, be very good at it. If you did assume that, you would be wrong, that's for sure.

I view running for election about the same as I view the prospect of having a colonoscopy. It's something I have to do periodically. I worry about it, but I think it'll turn out ok, since it always has in the past. And it's always such a relief when it's over.

But with a colonoscopy, you can be unconscious for most of it. With a contested election, it's preferable to be awake and coherent, although being aware of what's going on can be very depressing.

Even though I've been doing this for a long time, I haven't acquired much political skill over the years, but I made a few observations that could be of assistance to those of you contemplating taking the plunge in electoral politics.

You get no credit for winning cases.

You only get blame for losing them. People expect prosecutors to win cases, so when they do, it's no big deal. You can try bragging about all the cases you've won--and I do whenever I can--but the public is far quicker to criticize a not guilty verdict than praise a conviction. Take the recent Rod Blagojevich trial--please. The prosecutor, Pat Fitzgerald was second-guessed in the media for his "unsuccessful" prosecution when all he did was convict a sitting governor of a felony while the jury hung 11-1 for conviction on the other charges. He was one juror away from a spectacular result, yet his tactics were criticized and his efforts were considered a failure. So when you hit the campaign trail, don't expect anyone beyond your immediate family to be impressed with your guilty verdicts.

No good deed goes unpunished.

I've stopped counting the times that I've bent over backwards for people for whom I've achieved great results, who supported my opponent because of some imagined slight or because of a result that may not have been 100% of what they wanted--which leads me to my next point.

Two out of three is bad. In his classic album, Bat out of Hell, Meat Loaf sang, "two out of three ain't bad." That's generally true in life, but not in prosecution. Who do you think people will vote for, if you've made two decisions that they're happy with and one decision that made them unhappy? Trust me. It ain't you.

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