Voters in the Montezuma County sheriff’s race first need to set aside past allegations against both candidates. If the worst that can be said about a man is that he was accused of something years ago but the accusation didn’t go anywhere, that is just background noise. The question before voters is who would make the better sheriff now.
The primary criteria cannot be how each candidate would respond to Forest Service road closures, although we appreciate Michael Steele’s response at a local meeting: “If you’re asking if I would get into a gunbattle with other citizens trying to do their jobs, then probably no.” That’s a good place to start, because the issue will be decided in the courts, not in Montezuma County.
The real questions, though, are how well the candidates would handle the day-to-day running of the department, both inside the office and on the street, and how effectively they would coordinate emergency response if a large-scale crisis occurred. To analyze that, voters will need to read between the lines.
Steele, a write-in candidate, faces off against Steve Nowlin, who defeated incumbent Sheriff Dennis Spruell to win the Republican spot on the November ballot.
Steele, who has law-enforcement experience as a sheriff’s deputy in California, says that his 20 years of running a business have given him the edge. Nowlin has had a long, successful career enforcing the law in Colorado. Management experience certainly is a plus, especially when following a sheriff who wasn’t a good administrator; the question is whether voters believe they’re choosing a department manager or a top law-enforcement official. The fact that Steele missed the deadline to get his name on the ballot may hint at his organizational abilities, however.
Nowlin is a longtime resident. He understands the community’s sensibilities – not only the loudest voices but the quiet undercurrents. That’s a plus. It also means he’s had longer to collect both supporters and detractors. Anyone who enforces the law gains enemies; Nowlin’s are local.
The main difference between the two candidates may be that Nowlin would be a far less political sheriff. The current sheriff wanted to be a prominent political voice, and that didn’t work out well. This time around, we want someone who will concentrate on the job.
Steele’s campaign has called this “one of the most important elections in this county in a very long time.” All elections are important, especially when change is needed, but that suggests a political agenda that will not serve the county’s residents universally well.
More and more, candidates are choosing to bypass the party system and jump right to the general election. The desire for a nonpartisan contest is laudable, but that hasn’t been the result. No one imagines that Montezuma County is not electing conservatives. Republicans weighing in at the county assembly and in the primary election were voicing their preference for change. Steele could have offered himself as one of the options.
Nowlin would be a change to a more professional sheriff’s office. Steele might be a better sheriff than Dennis Spruell, but the fact that his campaign has been mostly about Nowlin rather than about what he’d do as sheriff suggests that Nowlin is the better choice.