Out-raised in dollars, out-spent on the campaign trail and out-performed, in my opinion, in the debates she attended.
None of that seemed to matter to voters.
On Tuesday, Sharon Wehrly buried Assistant Sheriff Rick Marshall at the polls in taking the office in a larger county movement towards “new blood.” Marshall has long been current Nye County Sheriff Tony DeMeo’s No. 2.
Marshall’s supporters tried to chip away at Wehrly by discussing her age. They tried to chip away by saying she might not be up to the job physically. They seized upon some missteps in a debate where Wehrly said the United Nations trumps the Constitution.
They tried to paint her as nothing more than a security guard.
What the Marshall’s supporters weren’t able to do was change the public perception of their candidate and the sheriff’s department. The voters spoke resoundingly for change.
Wehrly received 69.2 percent of the vote, receiving 4,548 more votes than Marshall.
There was too much negativity swirling around Marshall, driven by the “Anybody but Rick” campaign. Marshall admitted as much to reporter Mark Waite.
“Any time negative campaigning is put on the way that they did it absolutely,” Marshall said. “But I also think people made it clear that they want somebody new in there.”
It is apparent the voters now want change from the top down, the outside in.
In Wednesday’s newspaper, voter Ron Oleson echoed what I’ve heard a lot since arriving in Pahrump at the end of September, “I just voted for Wehrly because I wanted to see the culture change in the sheriff’s department.” Oleson went on to say that voting for Marshall would be “voting people in that are already there,” so nothing would change.
Outgoing Sheriff DeMeo was first elected in 2002, his victory was viewed by some as a mandate. Winning with approximately 67 percent of the vote, he promised to bring professionalism and modernize the department. DeMeo came from within the department. Wehrly is an outsider, currently an investigator with the county’s District Attorney’s office.
One promise Wehrly has made is to have an “absolute transparent office.” In my short six weeks as editor, I have already found myself frustrated in the lack of information coming from the current department. From what I understand from my colleagues, this has been an ongoing frustration.
I am talking about how we found out about the arrest of Donald R. McFadden, someone the department itself called “potentially violent.”
If I was living in a community, I would want to know if someone with an extensive criminal history was off the street. Especially because the sheriff’s office had issued a press release alerting the community of the arrest warrant issued for McFadden, who they warned was potentially armed and dangerous.
So did the department tell us, and by extension, you, when this potentially dangerous ex-felon was arrested?
No they did not.
The Pahrump Valley Times was alerted to his arrest by a tip from outside the department Monday afternoon, two days after he was arrested. From what I understand, the local television station found out the information in a similar fashion.
I have been in the newspaper business long enough to know that there are times when the police are unable to share information because of ongoing investigations. To me, this was not one of those cases. Especially since they issued the press release looking for McFadden in the first place.
The sheriff’s office is not the only office where voters wanted to see change. Las Vegas-based attorney Angela Bello took 61.5 percent of the vote in sweeping first-term District Attorney Brian Kunzi out of office. Kunzi narrowly won election four years ago by 182 votes, but county voters apparently did not like what they saw since then.
The vote caught a lot of people by surprise, including county officials who work with the office.
County Commissioner Lorinda Wichman said she was “absolutely stunned, completely, totally blown away” by the result.
Unlike the sheriff’s office, I did not hear residents talking about a lot of negative issues coming out of Kunzi’s office. Maybe Kunzi, a Democrat, was caught up in the Republican tidal wave that swept the state on Tuesday.
Whatever the reasons, Nye County has two new leaders taking over the county’s two most important law offices in January. No matter if you agree with the choices made by voters, the best thing to do for the community is to support Wehrly and Bello as they transition to their new responsibilities.
I believe it was said best by someone who posted on the Pahrump Valley Times’ Facebook page: “It is done, over with and we the voters, voted for these people. You will always have happy and unhappy people. Like I said before, we must move on and be happy. Life is too short to go on and complain. Live each and every day to the fullest, God Bless everyone.”
Arnold M. Knightly is the editor of the Pahrump Valley Times. Contact him at aknightly@pvtimes.com. him on Twitter: @KnightlyGrind.