Jon Budelmann, who is running for district attorney of Cayuga County has plunged his campaign into an ethical morass. His recent advertisement suggests that his opponent is in some way less fit to be district attorney because he has represented people charged with crimes.

Has Budelmann completely lost his senses? How can an attorney, no less a career prosecutor, be so wrapped up in his zeal to win at any cost that he loses sight of the basic values which make our country so great. Mike Bass, who is running against Budelmann behaved in the highest and most honorable tradition of American justice by serving as a defense attorney. He follows in the proud tradition of our second president, John Adams, a former criminal defense attorney, who recounted his defense of British soldiers tried in American courts as the pinnacle of his legal career.

Would-be district attorneys should not be heard to impugn the values of the thousands of dedicated men and women who daily make our criminal justice system work by representing those charged with crimes. Criminal defense attorneys assure that those in a position of power are pressured to follow the rule of law and ethical conduct. But then Budelmann knows that. There is perhaps no higher calling than to be asked to stand beside a person at what may be the nadir of their life and provide a bulwark against overzealous prosecutors. Demanding and assuring the delivery of all of the rights that our forefathers guaranteed to each of us, is what criminal defense lawyers do every day. It's what everyone of us would want if we or a member of our family were so unfortunate as to be charged with a crime.

We take no position as to who might make a better prosecutor in Cayuga County. We do however, like everyone else in Cayuga County, hope that whoever is elected has demonstrated a deep and well-earned appreciation of the value that a zealous defense brings to the search for justice in our courts.

Daniel N. Arshack

New York

Arshack is president of the New York State Association of Criminal Defense Lawyers