Its not about Law and Order, stupid.

Its all about the amount of money a Sheriff gets paid.

Eleven's a crowd in Braxton sheriff race

The race for sheriff in Braxton County is nothing if not crowded.

With 10 Democrats and one Republican on the ticket, the county's 8,700 registered voters have a lot of choices on Tuesday.

Those choices include a former sheriff, several former and current police officers and six people who've never worked in law enforcement.

Along with all the candidates has come speculation that some names on the ballot are there just to draw votes away from others. (OH NO, .... is that possible? )

"It is confusing this year," said Pat Bragg, Braxton deputy county clerk. "Our current sheriff can't run for another term. He's running for assessor. The assessor is running for magistrate. It's all confused."

Larry Emge is the current police chief of Sutton and ran for sheriff once before in the '80s. He said he's not happy with the way some of the county's Homeland Security money has been spent and thinks he has some good ideas for the department.

Emge believes some of the candidates on the ballot are decoys, working to siphon votes away from others.

"In the primary they've put someone in one district to pull votes, and they put someone in another to pull votes," he said. "They know they can't win, but they can draw votes. ... It's hard to say who's who. I don't really know. But I got a feeling."

Attempts during the past week to reach many of the candidates were unsuccessful.

The Braxton County Clerk's office provided a list of addresses and telephone numbers for the candidates. The number provided for Jeffrey McLaughlin reached a woman who said she was his mother.

"He doesn't live here," she said. "He comes and goes."

Candidate Richard Perkins, a former policeman in Gassaway and Sutton, declined to speak to a reporter and hung up the phone.

Gary Lane Hacker is a heavy equipment operator with no experience as a police officer. He says he is running because he wants to see some changes in the way patrols are handled in the county.

Too often, patrols don't make it to the most rural parts of the county, he said.

"I'm interested in looking at what the deputies are actually doing and what is being taken care of as far as calls being made. ... I've had people say they've called numerous times and nothing's been done."

Current Braxton Sheriff Howard Carpenter was out of town and could not be reached for comment.

John Stump, formerly a sergeant with the Sheriff's Department, echoes Hacker's sentiments. After midnight, there are no sheriff's deputies on duty, he said.

"There is an on-call deputy and most of the time it takes him between 20 and 45 minutes to respond," Stump said. "They don't have enough patrols in rural areas. We have 821 square miles of roadway and in the rural areas is where most of the burglaries are. ...We need more coverage."

Stump had to resign his job with the department because state code forbids sheriff's deputies from engaging in any political activity other than voting.

The county's chief deputy, Charles "Chuck" Hosey, also is running but has not resigned.

A 1975 opinion by the state attorney general ruled that chief deputies do not fall under the same rules as other deputies and don't have to resign their position to run for office.

Hosey could not be reached for comment.

Stump also said he believes there are several candidates running simply to steal votes from others.

"Some of them don't attend meet-the-candidate dinners. They haven't made any speeches at all. There is something funny," he said. "I don't really know who they are deflecting votes for and as far as naming names, I don't want to do that."

Bragg said she, too, has heard the rumors about phantom candidates.

"That's the popular theory," she said. "Who knows; that's just speculation. ... I anticipate this election to be bigger than usual. Everybody has friends. We've already voted over 700 early. And it will help that it's a presidential election year."

http://www.sundaygazettemail.com/News/200805100411

Sam how much does your sheriff make in Braxton Co?

And who are all of these people supposed to be taking votes from? Who does the Braxton County establishment back Sam?