Retired Clark County Sheriff’s Office commander and former sheriff candidate John Graser officially threw his support behind Chuck Atkins late Monday night, endorsing the candidate in a Facebook post that criticized Atkins’ opponent, Sgt. Shane Gardner, for lacking the experience to lead the office.
“My concern is two-fold,” Graser wrote in the post. “The employees of the (sheriff’s) office deserve to have competent leadership and the community needs an experienced law enforcement professional to lead and guide the department in the coming years and that has the skills to deal with a myriad of challenges.”
Less than 24 hours after the remarks went live, Gardner’s campaign questioned Graser’s credibility, saying the erstwhile candidate had previously offered to endorse Gardner in exchange for a job in the sheriff’s office, should Gardner win the election.
Gardner said the meeting with Graser took place on Aug. 8 at River Maiden Artisan Coffee three days after the primary in which Graser came in a distant third. Gardner quickly discounted Graser’s idea of an endorsement-for-job arrangement, he said, and discussions between the two ended.
Graser didn’t dispute that he met with Gardner and said he wanted an assurance that he would be part of Gardner’s eight-member administrative team.
‘He is not qualified’
According to Graser, Gardner’s campaign team initiated the meeting to see whether they could garner his endorsement. Graser said he suggested the quid pro quo arrangement knowing that Gardner would need “mentoring” should he be elected.
“If Shane (Gardner) is elected sheriff, he is not qualified for the job,” Graser said Tuesday in an interview. “He speaks a lot about the community, but that’s because that’s his job now. He’s in community outreach.”
Gardner said he was quiet during most of the meeting with Graser, leaving much of the discussion to Dean Sutherland, a former state senator and campaign organizer for Gardner.
Atkins, a retired commander, Graser and Gardner were pitted against each other in a four-way primary race that ended earlier in the month. Ed Owens, a former sheriff’s office detective, was the fourth candidate.
The Aug. 5 primary whittled the field down to two candidates, Gardner and Atkins, who have worked in the weeks following the election to distinguish themselves.
On Tuesday, Gardner said he was disappointed by the negative tenor of Graser’s endorsement, particularly after meeting with the retired commander earlier in the month and hearing his pitch to rejoin the sheriff’s office.
While Gardner, running as a nonpartisan, has sold himself as a man of the people, dedicated to building community partnerships, Atkins has pointed to his own experience in the sheriff’s office and backing from various police guilds.
Few would consider Graser’s endorsement to be the most coveted — that designation goes to Sheriff Garry Lucas, who has remained mum publicly on whom he supports — but it nonetheless represents a turning point in the general election. Graser, running as a Republican, received 13 percent of the primary vote.
Atkins, also a Republican, said he appreciated Graser’s endorsement and hopes to pick up Graser’s votes as a result of it.
During the primary, Atkins bested Gardner, receiving 42.27 percent of the vote to Gardner’s 31.7 percent.
“It can only help,” Atkins said of the endorsement. Still, even without Graser’s endorsement, Atkins said he expected to pick up the roughly 8,000 votes that were cast for Graser in the primary.
The two had shown mutual respect for each other during the primary as well.
Graser said during a June meeting with The Columbian’s editorial board that, out of the three other candidates, he would endorse Atkins.
Graser’s retirement
Graser’s bid to rejoin the sheriff’s office as the top cop raised hackles within certain circles and among some observers during the primary. They said Graser stood to benefit financially should he take another job within the sheriff’s office.
Seventeen years ago, Graser retired from the sheriff’s office after a local board deemed him disabled. The retirement stemmed from a work-related back injury.
Since then, he’s been receiving benefits through an old pension system for law enforcement officers and firefighters, which is more generous than what is currently available.
Graser, 63, said his back had healed to the point he felt he could rejoin the sheriff’s office without suffering from complications, the result of a surgery five years ago. And while his rehiring would boost his retirement plan, he disputed that was his motivation for seeking another job at the sheriff’s office.
He called his endorsement of Atkins “unconditional.”
For his part, Atkins said he’d made no promises to Graser and that he would not become part of the campaign team.
“I made no promises, no offers,” Atkins said, adding that Graser’s endorsement was expected. “John (Graser) is another Republican, and a guy with 20 years of (law enforcement) experience.”
He added: “I was happy to see John come on board.”
