Major Interest Shown in Sheriff’s Race

Six candidates for Prowers County Sheriff appeared before a standing room only audience Monday, February 24, at the Lamar Cultural Events Center to state their case as to why they should be the next sheriff come election day in November.

The candidate’s forum was hosted by Dr. Gerry Branes from Voices of Southeast Colorado in conjunction with Second Amendment Defenders of Southeast Colorado. Five candidates are currently in law enforcement in Prowers County.

Dave Reid

They are Dave Reid, Sam Zordel, Ron Trowbridge, Shawn Stone, David Dougherty and the sixth candidate was Joe Walker.

Ron Trowbridge

Since the forum was held, another candidate, Ron Manly, also employed by the Sheriff’s Department, has declared his candidacy, but with no stated affiliation to a political party. Manly informed The Prowers Journal he was entering the race as an unaffiliated candidate. The Prowers County Clerk and Recorders office said he would need 2% of the total number of votes for the sheriff’s office from the 2010 General Election for submission. Unaffiliated candidates may begin their petition for signatures on May 15 and must submit them to the Prowers County Clerk and Recorder by July 10. Any candidate from a major political party who is entering the race through a petition must have 20% of the votes for the sheriff’s office as of the 2010 primary election. This year’s primary election, if one is held, will be on June 24.

Sam Zordel

The forum allowed each candidate to make a general presentation to the audience and that was followed by two questions provided by the hosts. Each candidate then received nine minutes to answer a series of written questions picked by them at random. There were also a few questions directed to a specific candidate.

Joe Walker

Some central issues were evident through questions provided through the evening; altering the $2.5 million annual sheriff’s budget, increased law enforcement coverage for Holly and Granada, once elected any changes for the sheriff’s department or personnel, thoughts on drug prevention and where did each candidate stand regarding enforcement of the Second Amendment and the right to bear arms if the President tried to take them away from the citizenry?

Shawn Stone

Two candidates, Shawn Stone and David Dougherty had been employed by the Lamar Police Department, while Stone is now a Deputy and Dougherty is the Granada Police Chief. Zordel and Trowbridge are now employed as Senior Deputy and Undersheriff, respectively, and have prior experience with the sheriff’s budgeting process. The majority of the candidates believed there would be a means by which more time would be spent on county roads by the department’s deputies than in the City of Lamar. Stone said he favored implementing a program which divided the county into east and west districts to provide coverage in those communities with regular patrols. Reid said the sheriff’s department needed to keep pace with technological developments and would provide an analysis to determine how much more patrol time might be needed in the outlying communities of the county. Currently the town of Holly has an annual contract with the county to provide 40 hours of patrol duty a week. Reid told the audience that as a Lamar Police Officer, he was an investigator involved in drug enforcement and wanted to see more time spent in that area. Trowbridge believed the current sheriff’s budget was adequate, but the county commissioners, not the sheriff had most of the authority for setting annual funding.

Trowbridge added the sheriff had limited authority regarding altering personnel, either on patrol or on detention and saw no need for changes under his command. Each of the candidates provided a similar answer to that question.

David Dougherty

The political process will move forward in Prowers County and determine who will be the front runners for sheriff with the GOP Precinct Caucus scheduled for 7pm, Tuesday, March 4 at the LCC Wellness Center and at the Holly City Complex at 5:30pm. The Democratic Precinct Caucus will be held on the 4th at 6:30pm in the Colorado Room at the Rodeway Cow Palace Inn. The GOP delegate county assembly to determine candidates for the General Election will be held on Sunday, March 16 at 2pm at the Large Lecture Hall at LCC. The purpose of the Precinct Caucus is to elect delegates to the County Assembly to vote for candidates to the ballot for either a Primary Election if two or more candidates garner 30% of the vote at the County Assembly or the General Election if only one candidate garners 30% of the vote at the County Assembly.

By Russ Baldwin