Mr. Berrick said the closing is symptomatic of the tough choices counties must make because of California's realignment of mental health services.
Ms. Martinez, a tough-talking county district attorney who was not widely known when her campaign began, has appeared on television criticizing Mr. Richardson's tenure as being rife with scandals and flashing a photo of the governor smiling alongside Ms. Denish.
He is from the tough former mining county of Yorkshire, which may have shaped his conviction that if an undertaking is easy, it isn't worth doing.
Sheriff Joe Arpaio of Maricopa County, Ariz., who has built a national reputation with his get-tough tactics, and county health officials have violated the Constitution by depriving jail inmates of adequate medical screening and care, feeding them unhealthy food and housing them in unsanitary conditions, a federal judge has ruled.
"It's a tough time," said the county's top elected official, County Judge Ronnie McDonald.
These are tough times for the county Democratic Party organizations in New York City.
One of the programme's biggest fans is Joe Arpaio, the notoriously tough sheriff of Maricopa County in Arizona.
"A lot of not reaching the goal had to do with the county's tough financial times in the 80's," Mr. Talmage said.
The Westchester County Executive, Andrew J. Spano, said that the county, facing tough economic times, must do some "belt-tightening," including a 3.8percentt property tax levy, a freeze on social program spending, as well as hiring and salary freezes.
