Kevin Walsh, Toby Shelley and Joe Price
For sheriff, voters’ choices in November are among incumbent Republican Kevin Walsh and two of his deputies, Democrat Joe Price and Toby Shelley for the Working Families Party.
In the primary elections on Sept. 14, Walsh beat a third deputy, Ed Bragg, for the Republican nomination. Walsh had 9,633 votes to Bragg’s 5,954. Bragg was the first Republican to challenge Walsh in the past 16 years.
For the Democratic nomination, Price defeated Sergeant Toby Shelley, who had been the party’s choice. In the Sept. 14 primary, Price had 5,211 votes to Shelley’s 4,505.
But on Sept. 24, Price’s candidacy came under a cloud. The Post-Standard reported that 60 comments with what the paper called “racist, sexist and homophobic overtones” had been posted on Syracuse.com under Price’s username, Modman97. He had earlier denied making the postings to the Onondaga County Democratic Committee, the paper reported. To The Post-Standard, he acknowledged posting two criticisms of affirmative action and one homophobic comment. He denied the others, suggesting someone else posted them under his username.
After those revelations in The Post-Standard, the Democratic party withdrew its support of Price. He will remain on the ballot but the party chairwoman, Diane Dwire, told the newspaper that the party would not use its resources on Price’s behalf.
The general election is Nov. 2.
In the primaries, 18 percent of registered Republicans in Onondaga County came out to vote, giving incumbent Walsh 62 percent of the vote. Only 10 percent of registered Democrats voted, with Price getting 53 percent of the vote. The county has 111,450 registered Democrats and 94,701 Republicans.
One reason for the lower percentage of voting Democrats could be a lack of available information, said political science professor Jeff Stonecash of Syracuse University. “People just don’t get terribly interested in the primary unless there is a lot of newspaper coverage, a lot of direct mail. There was none of that on their side so it just fades into obscurity,” he said.
Here are thumbnail sketches of the candidates:
Kevin Walsh (incumbent, Republican)
Walsh has served as the Onondaga County sheriff since 1994. If re-elected, he will be the county’s longest-serving sheriff. His predecessor served 17 years.
In his victory speech after the primaries, Walsh cited his 16 years in office as a reason for his reelection in an era of budget cutting. “I’ve got the experience and the expertise in these areas to be able to see to it that we are able to protect this community in the same fashion that we have for so many years,” he said in the speech.
Walsh and his campaign did not respond to several phone and e-mail requests for interviews.
Walsh, 65, lives in North Syracuse with his wife, Joan. He has three grown children, Shannon, Kevin and Kelly. In his victory speech after the primaries, Walsh said encouragement from his wife helped him decide to run for a fifth term.
The sheriff’s office has been under scrutiny since two prisoners died in custody in the past nine months. One pregnant prisoner died after her fallopian tube ruptured, according to The Post-Standard, causing people to question health care in the jail.
But Walsh has defended his office’s treatment of prisoners. In The Post-Standard, he said the county spent $8 million in the past year for health care in the jails. In response to recent deaths in the jail in the past year, he told the newspaper that all procedures were properly followed.
Walsh’s Web site specifically highlights changes in the jail’s operations as one of his major accomplishments. Prisoners have access to educational opportunities and many learn trade skills, according to his Web site. His Web site calls the Justice Center a “national model of how a jail should be managed.”
As another accomplishments, he cites founding the AIR-ONE Task Force that led to the purchase of an emergency-services helicopter.
Joe Price (challenger, Democrat)
In 2006, Price ran for the sheriff’s office but lost to Walsh. Price is still a deputy and has been in the department for 17 years.
Price graduated from the State University of New York at Brockport with a degree in criminal justice. He is also certified by the New York State Department of Correctional Services in the field of corrections, according to his Web site. He lives in Baldwinsville.
Price and his campaign did not return multiple requests for an interview.
In his campaign, Price focuses “accountability” for the sheriff’s office. Price has criticized Walsh for what he describes as a lack of oversight in overtime management, poor conditions in the county jail, 18 arrests of sheriff’s department personnel since 2006, and the cost of running two expense of running two police academies — one each for the city and the county.
He would also like to curb overtime, he said, and what he calls abuse of sick leave by employees.
Toby Shelley (challenger, Working Families)
Despite losing the Democratic primary, Shelley will continue to run on the Working Families ticket, said he campaign manager Tom Newton.
Shelley, 43, studied criminal justice in graduate school at Columbia College. He began serving as a deputy sheriff in 1994 and was promoted to sergeant in 2004, according to his Web site. He has also served in the Air Force with a tour of duty in Iraq from 2006-2007, according to his Web site.
Shelley’s main campaign initiatives focus on improving the relationship between the police and the public, reducing what he sees as too much spending in the sheriff’s department and boosting morale and care in the jail, said Newton, his campaign manager.
Without the Democratic Party nomination, said Newton: “We are obviously the absolute underdog now.” But, he said, Shelley will continue to campaign.
(Kathleen Ronayne is a junior in newspaper journalism.)
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