Corbett Akins To Be Candidate for County Sheriff

To the people of Panola County:

It is that time again for public officials to declare their intentions and for those of us in office to give a report of stewardship to the people.

I will be a candidate for re-election and my campaign will be based solely on the merits or past performances.  I have never considered the Sheriff’s Office my own.  It belongs to the people and every taxpayer is an interested stockholder.  The sheriff’s office is an institution in Panola County, comparable to the junior college, the public school system, the county hospital, either of our two banks or any sound business institution.

The people and taxpayers support such institutions.  They choose their administrators and supervisors.  A policy must be established.  A plan of operation worked out, and a system of checks and balances maintained.

When the people determine by the majority vote who is to supervise their Sheriff’s Office they place their trust in his ableness, ability and honesty.

I am thankful that the majority of good people in this community have honored me in the past with complete confidence.  In humbleness and great gratitude in my heart I acknowledge their faith.  Without the knowledge of knowing the good people were behind me in my endeavors to build the sheriff’s department in Panola County into a fine, clean and respectable institution, I could not have achieved the goal.

When I was elected sheriff I had a purposeful and definite goal… that of making my native county an outstanding example of good law enforcement.  It is so recognized today. 

The thanks belong to the community.  When I was first chosen as your sheriff the job was not a prize political plum.  It required long hours of hard work to bring the badge of honor and good law enforcement to the county.  I was determined to try to gain the cooperation of good people in order to attain my goal, because I fully realized that the personal ambition of one man was not enough.  It took team work.  I am grateful for the support I have received from all law enforcement agencies, other county officials, the press, radio, the business men, religious leaders in the community, and last but not least the people who placed their trust in me.  I appeal to the common sense and judgement of the democratic descendents of such great men as Woodrow Wilson, John Garner, and Robert E. Lee to help me in my campaign to keep a great institution alive.  With your help we can preserve the institution I have headed for the past few years, just like we have preserved and advanced the other institutions in our county under the leadership of qualified and Christian servants.

My father, the late Lee Akins, a warm and solid supporter of the immortal Southern General Robert E. Lee, once passed along to me this thought from the lips of the famed son of the South:  “ If you believe in a cause your own life is a cheap price to pay for it.”

I have defended the Sheriff’s Office as an institution of better law enforcement and certainly many times have defended with my life the principles for which I stood as the people’s servant.  It was a privilege to do so.

I am thankful that we have the best county in the state today.  I am glad that the Sheriff’s Office is considered a Texas model for good and clean law enforcement. 

Top those of you who have helped keep your Sheriff’s Office among the best in the past, I solicit your support and your friend’s support, friendship and help in the coming campaign.

I hope to see you all but my duties are heavy… 24 hours around the clock.

To those of you who believe that a good institution under the supervision of a tried and trusted administrator is worth preserving, I ask your confidence, aid and active assistance in the months ahead.  With the hand of him above guiding our destiny we cannot fail in our resolution to make the sheriff and your office a better one.  Vote for a true and trusted friend and I will still make you a better sheriff.

Thanks,

Corbett Akins, Sheriff

Hats Off! to Dominique Thornton for researching this information in the microfilm files of The Panola Watchman.

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03/21/05