Rob Galibois for District Attorney
Making the case
When someone with integrity, experience, values, and vision is willing to take the crazy leap into the public fray, run for office, offer to serve, we all should take notice, and take heart. So it is with Rob Galibois, campaigning to become the next Cape and Islands District Attorney.
The more I get to know Rob, the better I like him. Straightshooter and great family man, his two boys were born at Cape Cod Hospital and his wife Nikki does wonderful work for community programs like pre-school nutrition and emergency assistance. He’s an accomplished attorney who has served as a prosecuting assistant DA and high-powered defense counsel, so he’s seen it from both sides and tried cases in almost every court in Massachusetts. He’s tough, but understands there are times when professional treatment can save lives and improve public safety better than locking someone up.
He has a conscience. He has a heart. He believes in public service, proving that by going all-in on this campaign.
All this frames Rob’s vision and priorities for the office. Here’s maybe the most important big-picture point:
During the next DA’s term, if a Republican Congress has anything to say about it, the national challenge to reproductive health care rights will come home. Rob’s position:
“I will not prosecute any woman who seeks medical treatment of her choice, including an abortion, and I will not prosecute any health care provider who helps her make those choices.”
That principled clarity is the lens through which other issues focus:
He is calling for a special court to work with veterans. Other District Attorneys across the state already do this, we don’t -- even though the Cape and Islands is home to the most veterans of any region in Massachusetts.
He is committed to enlisting health care professionals to address mental health in another special court. He understands that root causes of addiction and crime must be addressed to break vicious cycles.
He believes criminals must be taken off the streets, while treatment and diversion must play major roles as well. That balance of compassion and incarceration moves far beyond the failed, easy “tough on crime” cliches.
He also recognizes that this office -- male-dominated, mostly white -- must transform. He has pledged that his First Assistant District Attorney, any DA’s key assistant, will be a woman — for the first time ever on the Cape and Islands.
He has promised that every person who works in the DA’s office, the DA included, will commit to four hours of community service a month. There are 65 employees in that office, so that’s powerful engagement that will create close community bonds to an office that has been isolated and insulated.
He has also promised community engagement through regular meetings town by town. He calls the program “the DA and us.”
A DA should stand as the community’s conscience and compass, a role never embraced around here. For example, Rob has made it clear that he trusts our towns to conduct free and fair elections, and will stand by the results. He has disavowed any and all election deniers (including the present DA). His opponent won’t.
He said he would join with the Texas sheriff and federal officials investigating whether Venezuelan immigrants airlifted to this jurisdiction (with public funding) were illegally coerced.
He has promised to broker discussions to create more residential treatment and help break recidivism; repeat offenders are the biggest threat of all to public safety.
Does all this sound too good to be true?
I’ve been around a long time, been through a lot, seen a lot -- political, journalistic, and otherwise. I have always tried to call it like it is.
Rob Galibois is the real deal. For the sake of the Cape and Islands I love, here’s hoping he gets elected.
If you can help make that happen by telling friends about him – hey, forward this Voice if you think it might be persuasive – that would be more than great.
And oh yes, vote early -- but not often.
Thank you once again for an excellent column. Rob is going to be such an amazing DA!
Excellent, Seth; Rob has my vote and I will share/forward you review of his stance.