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Sixteen years ago, a lawyer out of New Bedford won the Bristol County District Attorney's race by promising to take the politics out of the office, and to get tough on criminals.

Today a lawyer from Fall River is running for the same office on the same platform, and his target is the man who successfully used those issues 16 years ago.

Challenger Sam Sutter is taking on incumbent Paul Walsh in a race that is dominating the headlines in the southern end of the county, and earning its fair share of attention in the Attleboro area. The winner will be decided Tuesday in the Democratic primary.

Sutter says if he is elected, he will hire more professional prosecutors in place of politically-connected staffers. He also says he will stop the practice of plea bargaining with major criminals and seek maximum sentences against them.

He has enlisted the help of a number of local police unions, which have endorsed him and claimed there is a lack of cooperation between police and Walsh. `` It makes a huge statement, a powerful statement, that the police are unhappy with Paul Walsh and want Sam Sutter,'' Sutter said in a recent visit to Attleboro.

Walsh counters that seeking police union endorsements brings politics into the courthouse.

He said he has made his share of enemies over the years because he is tough-minded, and does what he thinks is right regardless of the political fallout.

Walsh said he has been an innovative district attorney, being among the first to use DNA evidence in a trial and trying a juvenile as an adult.

Adding to the flavor of the race is the fact that Sutter used to work for Walsh as an assistant district attorney, including a stint as the prosecutor at Attleboro District Court.

Sutter said he left the office under good terms and his race against Walsh is in no way personal.

But, at times the race has sounded highly personal.

During debates, Walsh has disdainfully referred to Sutter as `` a piece of work.'' Both men have accused each other of playing loose with the truth.

One of the biggest issues in the campaign has been Sutter's charge that Walsh is too quick to plea-bargain cases in order to clear his docket and, as a result, lets serious criminals get off too lightly.

He points to a case in which an Attleboro store clerk was robbed by a masked criminal with a sword. The charge was reduced to larceny in a plea-bargain. `` That case is a symbol of what is wrong in the district attorney's office,'' Sutter said. He also said he would never plea-bargain a case involving a major drug dealer.

Walsh said plea-bargains are often misunderstood and mislabeled. He said Sutter plea-bargained many cases when he was an assistant district attorney.

Sometimes prosecutors allow a defendant to plead guilty to a lesser crime in a plea-bargain in order to win their cooperation against the more serious criminal, such as a major drug dealer, Walsh said.

Both men have campaigned the in the Attleboro area, with Sutter getting support from some politically active police, and Walsh enjoying the backing of several lawyers and local politicians such as state Sen. Jim Timilty and Attleboro City Councilor George Ross.

But in the Fall River and New Bedford area, the campaign has been an all-out war.

Crime -- especially gang violence -- is booming in the southern end of the county, giving the race a different tone than in the northern end.

Sutter contends that Walsh should be more `` proactive'' in investigating crime rather than just prosecute it. He is proposing creating task forces with specialists for gang, gun and drugs crimes.

He also said he wants to do away with politically-connected employees in Walsh's community outreach program and replace them with volunteer efforts.

Walsh said the program goes into schools and youth organizations to talk to young people to steer them away from crime before it is too late. He charges Sutter would dismantle that effort.

It is a lot easier to prevent a 13-year-old from joining a gang than getting a 19-year-old to quit one, he said.

Both men are Democrats, and there is no Republican running, so the winner of Tuesday's primary will be the next district attorney.