Despite jail problems, Howard re-elected sheriff in Erie County
Voter turnout called subpar
Sheriff Timothy B. Howard appeared to have survived the self-described albatross around his neck — the escapes, deaths and wrongful releases at Erie County’s jails — to win re-election Tuesday.
With 62 percent of the vote counted, the first-term Republican had 46,091 votes, or 52 percent.
His Democratic challenger, John A. Glascott, a Cheektowaga police captain and political newcomer, tallied 41,821 votes, or 48 percent, in an election that drew a subpar turnout.
“It’s a typical off-year election with low to moderate turnout, except in the city, where its dismal,” said Dennis E. Ward, the Democratic elections commissioner.
In a year with few competitive contests, the normally sleepy race for sheriff quickly emerged as the season’s most interesting race.
As expected, it became a referendum of sorts on Howard and his management of the county’s two jails.
“The Holding Center is a huge issue for me,” Catherine Pera, a Democrat, said Tuesday as she left her polling place at St. Paul’s Lutheran Church in Eggertsville. “If [Howard] needed more funding, he should have fought for it.”
From Day One, Glascott hammered on the 2006 escape of Ralph “Bucky” Phillips from the Alden facility. While he was free, Phillips shot three state troopers, killing one.
As they went to the polls Tuesday, more than a few voters pointed to Howard’s high-profile refusal to allow state and federal investigators access to the jails and wondered whether he has something to hide.
“It’s the only reason I came out to vote,” Mindy Brick, a Democrat, said as she left her polling place on Myron Avenue in Kenmore. “I don’t know much about John Glascott, but that upset me. Howard’s attitude really angered me.”
Howard, in turn, stressed his 24 years with the State Police, during which he rose through the ranks and retired with the department’s highest award for heroism.
In the final weeks of the campaign, he tried to counter allegations of mismanagement with an advertising blitz that raised questions about an escape, suicide and wrongful release at the Cheektowaga jail that Glascott oversees.
The blitz was just part of a Howard campaign that raised and spent more money than Glascott.
“It’s a jail,” Matt Bausch, a Kenmore Republican, said of the allegations of jail mismanagement. “Some of it may be true. Some of it may be exaggerated. I think the sheriff is doing a good job.”
A few voters, Republican and Democrat, chastised Glascott for what they called unfair attacks on Howard, a decorated law enforcement officer.
“I don’t think he helped himself,” Pam Snyder, an Eggertsville Democrat, said of Glascott. “I also think there’s lots of blame to go around when it comes to the jail.”
While Howard’s role at the jails took center stage, he and Glascott also took sides over the famous Bike Path Killer investigation.
Howard made it a campaign issue by airing a radio ad touting his leadership in forming the Bike Path Killer task force, a coalition of police departments credited with tracking down and arresting Altemio Sanchez.
“I’ve always liked him,” Ruth O’Brien, a Kenmore Democrat, said of the sheriff after voting for him Tuesday.
During the campaign, Glascott responded to Howard’s claims by pointing to the sheriff’s role in the 2006 search for Joan Diver, one of Sanchez’s three murder victims.
The Sheriff’s Office came under fire when a volunteer search party discovered the body of the Clarence mother of four the day after the department scaled back its own round-the-clock search.
Between that and the controversies at the jail, some voters came away seeking a change.
“Too many unanswered questions,” Chris McDonald, a Kenmore Democrat said when asked why she voted for Glascott on Tuesday.
Mackenzie Hassan, a Republican, also voted for Glascott but not because he was her first choice.
A teacher at Maritime Charter School in Buffalo, Hassan promised her class she would vote for the candidate they selected after watching the two politicians in a local Internet debate.
“They weren’t happy with the status quo,” she said of their opposition to Howard.
The election winner will head a 900-member Sheriff’s Office, the largest local police force in Western New York.
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