Sikes' tactics prove she's not worthy of being D.A.

It was a flyer sent by Sikes to voters in Jackson, Barrow and Banks counties claiming that Smith is somehow responsible for the fact that a former Barrow County man raped and killed a little girl in Panama City, FL.

The connection is groundless and the attempted character assassination should make voters angry. Anyone utilizing such unethical tactics deserves the rejection of voters, particularly in an office where a previous district attorney proved to have serious ethical shortcomings.

Sikes has run a negative campaign from the beginning. She’s tried to convince voters that Smith and fellow candidate Rick Bridgeman were part of the Tim Madison corruption. Now she uses Smith’s signature on a court accusation form to link him in voters’ minds to a case in which he had no part. In fact, the case she cited had nothing to do with child abuse.

Her tactics should cast grave doubts upon her character and her judgment at a time when the Piedmont Judicial Circuit needs someone with strong ethics and a high moral character. In addition to having zero experience as a prosecutor, Sikes would bring to the district attorney’s office a track record of character assassination and strong evidence that she’ll distort with the facts to get her way. That may work well in her legal practice, but those are not attributes that should be accepted in a district attorney.