VIDALIA — One candidate said it has been a “quiet race so far,” but three men are vying for the office of Seventh Judicial District district attorney, and all three of them have promised to change the culture of the office.

Brad Burget

The theme of his campaign is “Prosecution, not politics,” and former Assistant District Attorney Brad Burget, who stepped aside to run for the office, said that is the focus of his campaign.

“My job as the district attorney will be to enforce the Constitution,” Burget said. “You have to do it with common sense, and you can’t abuse the authority you have been given. You have to be tough, but you also have to be compassionate to the victims of crime and easily accessible to the people.”

Upon taking office, Burget said he would like to implement some technological changes that would electronically tie the clerk of court’s office, the sheriff’s office and the district attorney’s office together so that everyone can keep track of where a case is, even if a defendant commits a crime while out on bond.

“That way, they won’t get randomly assigned to a different division, “ Burget said. “The defendant needs to only be in front of one judge.”

He said he would also have assistant district attorneys start screening cases themselves so they would be more familiar with them.

“Too much in the past, the district attorney wasn’t there and didn’t have the assistant district attorneys there working enough hours,” Burget said. “They should be there and make a decision whether this is a good case or a bad case.”

However, one thing about the culture of the office he wants to preserve, is the small town feel, where someone can just walk in and talk to a member of the office.

“I spend a lot of my time answering questions about people having tall grass in their yard or their neighbor’s dog is barking or their daughter is having drug issues,” Burget said. “Most people don’t know the difference between a civil case and a criminal case — they just want someone to talk to.”

Andy Magoun

Candidate Andy Magoun — a former assistant district attorney and current criminal defender — said he, too, would like to see technology changes made in the office, but that he would also like to see the office diversified to reflect the local demographic makeup.

“I think in some instances a black investigator can make more headway investigating some crimes in certain communities,” Magoun said. “I also think that in some cases — for example, child abuse — a woman might be able to get information more easily than a man.”

But that doesn’t mean he is going to fire everyone in the office.

“Obviously, you want to keep competent people, and you certainly don’t want to go into a job with complete turnover,” Magoun said.

Along with pledging to keep the district attorney’s office independent of outside influence, Magoun said he would give the office more structure by having one person work on the major felonies, one person work on drug cases and the rest work on other crimes.

“I think that structure has been lacking there for some time,” he said.

One program in place that Magoun said he would like to keep would be the deferment program, in which first time offenders are placed on probation, pay fees and may have to meet other standards such as passing a routine drug test, but the felony does not go on their record.

“It’s a good program, but it’s not applied evenly across the board,” he said. “You have to even it out based on the facts and based on people’s criminal background, not based on who they know.”

The office should be more visible and involved in the community, Magoun said.

“That way, you don’t meet kids for the first time in the courtroom, outside of their surroundings,” he said. “You’ve already met them in school, or on the ball field, and you know their backgrounds.”

That might solve many of the issues the office currently faces, he said.

“One of the big things is that people feel like there is somebody who cares,” Magoun said.

Ronnie McMillin

Ronnie McMillin stepped aside as a 24-year assistant district attorney to run for the office, and after 24 years his goal is to open the office to public scrutiny.

“I want to remove the black curtain that is across everything, which leads to a total lack of confidence about what is happening,” McMillin said. “I want the district attorney’s office to be responsive to the community and to be free of being dominated, influenced and controlled by other politicians and offices.”

Along with making more information available via the Internet, McMillin said he would like to create a juvenile division and work more closely with the schools to better prosecute and prevent juvenile crime, as well as work to get a proper facility to house juveniles.

“I have seen numerous times where juveniles commit a crime thinking, ‘They can’t do anything to us because we’re juvies,’” McMillin said.

Like the others, McMillin said he wants to make the office always accessible to the public, but he also said that, if elected, he would not run for a second term.

“I am dedicating six years of my life to this office without looking forward to the next election,” he said. “It is much more difficult to keep the political considerations out of your decisions if you have one eye on the case and the other eye on the next election.”

Early voting for the Oct. 4 election begins today.