Erie County Sheriff
After tough race, Howard wins re-election
Sheriff Timothy B. Howard survived the self-described albatross around his neck — the escapes, deaths and wrongful releases at Erie County's jails — to win his first re-election Tuesday.
With 88 percent of the vote counted, the first-term Republican had received 67,315 votes, or 53 percent, on his way to beating Democrat John A. Glascott.
Glascott, a Cheektowaga police captain and political newcomer, tallied 60,415 votes, or 47 percent, in an election that resulted in a dismal turnout at the polls.
"I just want to thank the voters of Erie County for seeing through all the negative things that have been said over the past few months," Howard said during a victory speech at the Adam's Mark Hotel.
Jeremy C. Toth, Glascott's campaign manager, said, "The story of this race is the shockingly low turn out among voters. It's absolutely shocking and unprecedented."
In his speech, Glascott accused Republicans of purposely holding down the vote by not running Republican candidates in Democratic strongholds like Buffalo.
"Let's face facts," he told supporters. "The Republicans did what the Republicans wanted to do and suppressed the vote. We had a very low voter turnout."
Howard's victory speech
Howard won despite a Democratic campaign that focused on allegations of mismanagement at the county jails in Alden and downtown.
From Day One, Glascott hammered on the 2006 escape of Ralph "Bucky" Phillips from Alden. While he was free, Phillips shot three state troopers, killing one.
Despite those allegations, Howard won by more than 6,000 votes, according to unofficial results from the Erie County Board of Elections.
"We're absolutely thrilled by the results," said A.J. Baynes, Howard's campaign manager. "I think the voters of Erie County saw the negative campaigning of our opponent and didn't buy it."
Election Night 2009 Roundup
In a year with few competitive elections, the normally sleepy race for sheriff quickly emerged as the season's most interesting contest.
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."
More than a few voters pointed to Howard's high-profile refusal to allow state and federal investigators access to the jails and wondered if he has something to hide.
"It's the only reason I came out to vote," said Mindy Brick, a Democrat, as she left her polling place on Myron Street 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, a career that saw him rise through the ranks and retire with the department's highest award for heroism.
In the final weeks of the race, he tried to counter the allegations of mismanagement with an advertising blitz that raised questions about an escape, suicide and wrongful release at the Cheektowaga jail Glascott oversees.
The blitz was just one 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 lawman.
"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 when he aired 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 myriad of controversies at the jail, some voters came away seeking a change.
"Too many unanswered questions," said Kenmore Democrat Chris McDonald when asked why she voted for Glascott Tuesday.
Mackenzie Hassan, a Republican, also voted for Glascott but not because he was her first choice.
A teacher at the Maritime Charter School, Hassan promised her class she would vote for the candidate they selected after watching the two men in a local debate.
"They weren't happy with the status quo," she said of their opposition to Howard.
The winner of Tuesday's election will head a 900-member sheriff's department, the largest local police force in Western New York.
News Staff Reporters Jay Rey and Brian Meyer contributed to this report.
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