The race for Salt Lake County District Attorney is not about politics. You have heard both candidates testify to that effect. Rather, it is about which of two veteran prosecutors is better qualified to represent the people in the criminal justice system and to manage one of the state's largest public law firms.

We, the Editorial Board of The Salt Lake Tribune, submit that in our judgment, Sim Gill is that candidate.

Mr. Gill, as you have heard, is chief prosecutor for Salt Lake City, where he has served for six years. But he also is a veteran of the D.A.'s office, where he prosecuted arson fraud and sat as second chair in a capital homicide case. In the civil law, he has been of counsel to the Salt Lake County Health Department.

In Salt Lake City, he led an innovative collaboration with police and the U.S. attorney to crack regional prostitution rings. By treating young prostitutes as crime victims rather than perpetrators, he and his colleagues were able to convince them to testify against pimps. That model now is being emulated elsewhere.

This example of big-picture thinking is what recommends Gill for the D.A.'s job. Another is his work to bring together in one place the social, legal and police services necessary to help victims of domestic violence. As a result of a similar program, intimate-partner homicides have dropped significantly in San Diego. Gill wants to apply those lessons here.

Mr. Gill's opponent, Lohra Miller, also is an experienced city prosecutor, having represented several county municipalities under contract over the past 14 years, most notably West Jordan. She is an able and articulate candidate who proposes to create geographic prosecution teams to improve communications between the D.A.'s office and police departments, particularly in the screening of cases for criminal charges.

Her ideas impressed this board enough that it endorsed her candidacy four years ago against then-incumbent D.A. David Yocom. But she is not running against Yocom this time around, and we believe that Gill's policy vision and broader experience with felony prosecutions tip the scale in his favor.

May it please the court, our argument for Sim Gill as the next D.A. rests.

Big-picture thinking is what recommends Gill for the D.A.'s job.