Marion County Sheriff’s Department Chief Deputy Anthony Decker will be the Republican party’s candidate for sheriff on the November ballot. He replaces current sheriff Kevin Cripps who decided last week not to seek re-election and endorsed Decker to replace him.
The unanimous vote of the Republican caucus in favor of Decker came after Cody Rose dropped out of contention and announced he has filed a complaint with the State Police and Attorney General Integrity Unit about what has happened during the five days leading up to Tuesday night’s caucus.
The several hundred in attendance at the Iron Saddle were not happy that the precinct committeemen went behind closed doors for their vote and did not use the tables set up in front of the audience to hold the caucus. When the crowd appeared to be getting out of control, Cripps called in assistance from State Police who eventually had three troopers in the building including one inside the closed meeting.
Attorney Kurt Lackey, who was appointed as moderator, tried to settle down those in attendance.
“The only thing you’re going to miss seeing is the precinct committeemen writing their ballots, and you’re going to miss the talk given by each of the candidates,” Lackey said. “It’s not fair for the candidates to try to give a talk in here, because the people they want to convince are going to be in there. I know a lot of you want everything to be public, but we want to get the best result that’s possible.”
Lackey then provided updates from the closed meeting including the announcement of the unanimous choice of Decker after Rose withdrew and tried unsuccessfully to nominate Marion County Board Chair Steve Whritenour in his place.
Decker admitted after the vote there are a lot of fences to be mended.
“I’m excited about the nomination, obviously. We’ve got a long road to go to the election and the election process,” Decker said. “As we all saw today, I’m afraid that the party’s a little divided. The people are a little divided, and I’ve got to try to work hard to bridge that gap. I know that’s a long road, and I understand that, but I’m going to try my best. I think the people of Marion County and the Republicans, I think we all need to unite. The common goal here is to elect strong Republicans into the offices, and I just hope to bridge that gap.”
Decker says he has a passion to lead the sheriff’s department that he started working in an entry level position 27 years ago as an 18-year-old.
The other nominated candidate, Cody Rose, says he didn’t want to be considered for the position under the circumstances.
“When I put everything together with information coming in, I immediately filed a report with the Public Integrity Unit,” Rose said. “After I received a confession from the chairman of the Republican party about what happened and how they kept a leading candidate from being able to run for office. Ever since then, I’ve been collecting information, gathering public support, gathering more information, and I went in there and let them all know that I have no interest in the Marion County Sheriff position, that they need to wake up, they need to lose their lust for power, and they need to actually be conservative Republicans and start leading this county.”
Rose says he would still love to be sheriff at some time in the future.
Whritenour also continued to voice concern about the process after the meeting.
“Obviously, I think this has been a planned event, This didn’t just randomly happen in the last five days,” Whritenour said. “Obviously, it was convenient that I was unavailable when this announcement was made. The sad part of tonight is, a majority of the precinct committee members are appointed, and they didn’t have anybody elect them to an office. And now, they singlehandedly just nominated the next Republican candidate for sheriff.”
Whritenour says Decker is a good candidate for sheriff and it’s unfortunate he was dragged through the questionable process. Whritenour says he would have gladly accepted the nomination for sheriff if the caucus had selected him. He plans to check Wednesday on what action he may want to take about the process.
Marion County Republican Party Chair Ben Stratemeyer says the four new precinct committeemen had all earlier agreed to serve but he had not gotten the paperwork to the county clerk’s office. Stratemeyer says they were not asked who they supported for sheriff.
Stratemeyer, Sheriff Cripps, as well as sheriff nominee Decker all say they welcome an investigation into the process.
“Oh, absolutely, I welcome any investigation,” Decker said. “I’ve done nothing wrong. Of the allegations that I know have been made and what Sheriff Cripps has told me about his decision, I don’t see any wrongdoing that he’s done. Please open any investigation, and I welcome all of them to come and talk.”
While the nomination was only to be the Republican candidate for sheriff, Decker has a clear path to the position as there is no Democratic candidate on the November ballot. Write-ins have until September 3rd to register at the county clerk’s office.
