Tim Ryan, tryan@shawanoleader.com
Shawano police officer Adam Bieber pulled off an upset victory Tuesday against incumbent Randy Wright to win the Republican nomination for Shawano County sheriff.
Though a virtual dead heat as most of the villages and towns reported, late results from the city of Shawano and towns of Wescott and Richmond pushed Bieber well over the top, to a more than 200-vote margin.
Unofficial results, which still have to be certified by the Board of Canvassers, were:
Adam Bieber 2,687
Randy Wright 2,459
Bieber now faces Lucas Christenson, of Shawano, running as an Independent in the Nov. 4 general election.
Christenson works in the parts department at American Marine & Motorsports in Shawano.
Shawano County Sheriff’s Department Capt. Tom Tuma withdrew from the race, but made his exit too late to keep his name off the ballot. He received 84 votes.
Wright had no comment on the results other than to thank those who supported him.
“I want to thank everybody who gave me their support,” he said.
Bieber did not return a phone call Tuesday night seeking comment.
The race had gotten some odd national attention over the past week because the last name Bieber shares with pop star Justin Bieber.
Wright made his experience a staple of the sheriff’s race. He started out at the sheriff’s office in 1976, working as a jailer, then a dispatcher and then a patrol deputy. He spent 25 years at the Shawano Police Department as a patrol officer before successfully running for sheriff in 2006 and winning re-election in 2010.
Bieber has worked in law enforcement for 14 years and has been with the Shawano Police Department since 2003.
Bieber made cooperation between other law enforcement agencies and government entities a key issue in the campaign, while Wright maintained that much of the cooperation Bieber was calling for was already taking place.
Bieber also hit at Wright’s often difficult relationship with the County Board, saying he would do a better job of working with county supervisors.
Wright said his problems with the County Board have been limited to a faction of about eight or nine supervisors who have the power to block the supermajority needed for borrowing and who Wright said were holding up progress in the county.
He said the race would be as much a referendum on the County Board as about the election of sheriff.
Another contentious issue was the Sheriff’s Department’s K9 unit.
Both Wright and Bieber said they believe the department’s K9 unit should be funded by the county rather than through the fundraising efforts of a private group.
Wright said the County Board has not been willing to increase the budget for the K9 unit and it would take $20,000 to $30,000 in cuts to other programs or services to put it into the budget.
Bieber had said he would make cuts elsewhere, including the possibility of eliminating some of the department’s take-home squads.
The candidates also differed on evidence storage, with Bieber questioning the need for expanded storage space. Wright has pushed for an evidence storage building since taking office in 2007.
Bieber has also questioned the department’s efforts to obtain a mine resistant armored personnel carrier, known in shorthand as MRAP. The Sheriff’s Department currently borrows similar armored vehicles when needed from Brown and Marathon counties for high-risk situations.
The Sheriff’s Department would get its MRAP by paying an annual $500 membership fee to Wisconsin Emergency Management, which will allow the department to obtain available military equipment. The department has already been approved for the vehicle by WEM but also needs federal approval.
The department would also pay transportation costs to deliver the vehicle from Texas, and pay for outfitting the vehicle with radios and other equipment. The roughly $10,000 in transportation and outfitting costs would be funded by asset forfeitures taken from drug dealers. The department would pay an estimated $300 a year for maintenance, which would be done by the county Highway Department.