NewTimesSLO.com | December 11. 2013 –
When San Luis Obispo County District Attorney Gerry Shea—who’s been head of the office for more than 15 years, the only D.A. to last that long in the last half century—announced he won’t seek re-election in 2014, it caught many people familiar with the office off guard.
The same day, Dan Dow, a deputy D.A. with the office for about six years, threw his hat in the ring for the June 2014 primary election—launching his website, which listed some 175 endorsements.
When Shea spoke to New Times about his decision, he said he initially planned to run for a fifth term, but “family matters” caused him to rethink that.
According to the numerous sources in and out of the D.A.’s Office and county courthouse who discussed what they know with New Times on condition of anonymity, Shea was “blindsided” when he learned of Dow’s effort to gather endorsements. Shea has run unopposed for the office since his inaugural term.
Dow told New Times he’s been giving a run “serious contemplation” since late summer. As of press time, he’d gathered endorsements from more than half of the office—too many to list here—but a few of the names that have appeared in the pages of New Times in the past include now-retired former assistant D.A. Dan Hilford and current deputy district attorneys Dave Pomeroy, Eric Dobroth, Kelly Mandarino, Dave Paxton, Lee Cunningham, Craig Van Rooyen, and Karen Gray. Some 65 law enforcement officers from the county’s various agencies have also signed on, as have such community leaders as County Supervisor Frank Mecham and Atascadero Mayor Tom O’Malley.
A major influence on Dow’s career has been his service in the Army, in which he enlisted as a private in 1989. He worked his way toward military intelligence, first as a linguist speaking Korean. By 1997, he’d completed his obligation with the Army and worked as a government contracts administrator and was pursuing his law degree. He continued his service with the California Army National Guard beginning in June 2001, where he rose to the rank of major, command judge advocate. He was deployed to Iraq and Kosovo, where he also served in intelligence, and later as a trial counselor and legal adviser to a logistics brigade commander. In Kosovo, he said, one assignment was tracking weapons smugglers as part of the peacekeeping effort following the Serbian-Albanian conflict of the mid-’90s. Part of his job, Dow said, was to keep an eye out for alleged war criminals still at large.
