One of the state’s most prominent lawmakers has become one of its newest deputy prosecutors.
Senate President John Campbell recently took over as a part-time deputy state’s attorney in Windsor County, where he's been spending most of his time so far working on juvenile cases.
Campbell has spent most of his professional career as a civil lawyer, but said Wednesday afternoon that he’s always wanted to be a criminal prosecutor. He said there are practical reasons for the move as well. The already difficult task of running a one-person civil shop, Campbell said, had been made even more so by simultaneously serving as president of the 30-member Senate.
Campbell says he intends to seek a third-term as pro tem, and that the 20-hour-a-week position will allow him to balance his professional career and legislative duties.
“It’s one of those jobs that I’m certainly going to be putting in more hours than I’m being paid for,” Campbell said. “But it’s going to be a labor of love.”
Campbell said he doesn’t anticipate many conflicts arising as a result of his new public-sector job. Essex County State’s Attorney Vince Illuzzi long served as both state senator and county prosecutor. Campbell says there may be issues on which he may have to recuse himself – the ongoing legislative effort to accord collective bargaining rights to deputy state’s attorneys, for instance.
He said he’ll remain vigilant for other conflicts, and disclose them when they arise. Campbell said he isn't aware of any looming challenges to his Senate presidency.
Campbell, who worked for three years as a law enforcement officer in Florida, said his early days at the courthouse have provided an invaluable window into the inner workers of the criminal justice system, and how it interacts with a public child-welfare apparatus that has come under fire in the wake of the deaths of several infants and toddlers.
“So I’m seeing things that actually begin to answer the questions of why we’re getting into some of the situations we’re getting into,” Campbell said.
