Write-in campaign for sheriff announced
Today, Corporal Rich Riffle of the Benton County Sheriff Department announced that he will run against Diana Simpson for sheriff in the fall election. It is past the deadline for Riffle's name to appear on the ballot, so he will wage a write-in campaign.
Jack Burright was apparently fired last week. Burright still has thousands of dollars of donations that he can either refund to donors or contribute to another campaign, but he has not made any motion to push that money toward Riffle's campaign.
The anti-Simpson crowd is already frothing at the mouth with glee, happy to have "anyone but Simpson" entering the race. Too bad that Riffle will probably still lose, simply because write-in campaigns take additional effort on the part of voters, who are inherently lazy (as evidenced by our lousy voter turnout, even with the convenience of our nifty mail-in ballots). Tim Smith, who created the anti-Simpson website, will assuredly chalk the loss up to the "conspiracy" in Benton County that he keeps ranting about.
Oh well. I don't know enough about Riffle yet to make my own decison, but I do agree that having a choice is generally beneficial for voters. I just hope Riffle's decision to enter the race wasn't based on the same vehement anti-Simpson rhetoric that the Burright fans keep spouting.
Jack Burright was apparently fired last week. Burright still has thousands of dollars of donations that he can either refund to donors or contribute to another campaign, but he has not made any motion to push that money toward Riffle's campaign.
The anti-Simpson crowd is already frothing at the mouth with glee, happy to have "anyone but Simpson" entering the race. Too bad that Riffle will probably still lose, simply because write-in campaigns take additional effort on the part of voters, who are inherently lazy (as evidenced by our lousy voter turnout, even with the convenience of our nifty mail-in ballots). Tim Smith, who created the anti-Simpson website, will assuredly chalk the loss up to the "conspiracy" in Benton County that he keeps ranting about.
Oh well. I don't know enough about Riffle yet to make my own decison, but I do agree that having a choice is generally beneficial for voters. I just hope Riffle's decision to enter the race wasn't based on the same vehement anti-Simpson rhetoric that the Burright fans keep spouting.
posted by Corvallist at
7:39 PM
3 Comments:
Riffle is the obvious choice, because "Sheriff Riffle" sounds funny. If I still lived in NYC, Anthony Weiner would get my mayoral vote for the same reason.
By
Anonymous, at 6:10 AM
Oh, it was Tim Smith who did the anti Simpson thing. I think Smith hates everyone and wants women barefoot, pregnant, rubbing his feet and working. That makes sense.
As for Riffle, that is a funny name. Almost as funny as the Prophet of the GT letters section's name "Hormone". He tells the truth, but his name makes it easier to dismiss his words, because yeah, they're hard to hear. But I think he's right. I refer to him as "The Prophet" and his naysayers as "infidels". Just as a joke. Hormone is right. One day his words will be reality, but nobody wants to see it that way, because we all want our lives nice and easy.
By
Anonymous, at 7:46 PM
One thing that can be said about Rich Riffle: he's not Jack Burright.
For the most part, Rich is a decent, easy-going individual who wants to get along with people as best he can. Until now, he's never been considered part of the gang by the old boy network within the department. He's looked upon community/law enforcement partnerships as being a positive thing but in the eyes of many of his co-workers, this has made him a "liberal" to be shunned.
On the other hand, after having worked in Benton County for 24 years, Rich has managed to rise only to the level of corporal. He hasn't been regarded as being particularly ambitious. Even though he has skills in some areas, management of large law enforcement operations is not among them. His appearance as a write-in candidate is simply as an 11th hour replacement. Whatever organizational structure that may have existed among the deputies is
quickly fracturing. Some want to stick with Burright to the bitter end while others prefer to dump him in favor of Riffle. Tim Smith seems to be more interested in becoming the next Bill Sizemore. What was it they said about divided houses?
As the GT editorial pointed out, Rich's contribution will be to help Diana Simpson better articulate her vision for law enforcement in Benton County because she's the one with the skills to be sheriff. If you're indeed intrested in learning more about this, you might start by asking her to talk about her vision.
By
Anonymous, at 2:45 PM
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