Tim Ryan, tryan@wolfrivermedia.com
Absentee and in-person voting begins Monday for the Nov. 4 election.
While the governor’s race dominates attention statewide, it’s the sheriff’s race that has been getting the most buzz in Shawano County.
Republican candidate Adam Bieber, a Shawano police officer, and Independent candidate Lucas Christenson will be on the ballot. Incumbent Randy Wright is running as a write-in.
Bieber defeated Wright in the Aug. 12 Republican primary race, 2,688-2,459.
Christenson’s campaign has been very low-key, while supporters of Bieber and Wright have been lighting up social media pages for weeks.
One of the questions swirling in social media has been why there has been no debate between the candidates.
Bieber said he would have been willing to debate prior to the primary, and an independent party tried to arrange one. Bieber said Wright declined.
Wright said the debate that was proposed would have been held on Facebook rather than a traditional setting.
Wright said he was open to a traditional debate with a moderator. After Wright announced his write-in campaign, the Leader attempted to arrange a debate at City Hall. Wright agreed to the debate, but Bieber declined.
“At this point a debate would be detrimental to forming good relationships with employees of the Sheriff’s Department,” Bieber wrote in an email.
He also said his and Wright’s stances on the issues are well-known by the public after numerous newspaper and radio interviews and social media postings.
“A debate at this point would only create a larger divide amongst our community and departments,” Bieber wrote.
Wright made his experience a staple of the sheriff’s race. He started out at the sheriff’s office in 1976, then spent 25 years at the Shawano Police Department before successfully running for sheriff in 2006.
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 primary 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.
Other contentious issues have included funding for the Sheriff’s Department’s K-9 unit, differences over evidence storage needs and Wright’s efforts to obtain a mine resistant armored personnel carrier. Bieber opposes the vehicle.
Other key contests on the ballot include the race for governor between incumbent Scott Walker and Democratic challenger Mary Burke; the attorney general race between Republican Brad Schimel and Democrat Susan Happ; and the 8th Congressional District race between incumbent Republican Reid Ribble and Democrat Ron Gruett.
Shawano County Clerk Rosemary Rueckert noted that voters will not have to provide a photo ID to cast a ballot in the Nov. 4 election, thanks to a U.S. Supreme Court order on Oct. 9.
Voters who might have received a letter prior to that telling them to provide a photocopy of their ID with their absentee ballot can disregard the letter, Rueckert said.