|
May 23,
2008
By RAELYNN RICARTE
News staff writer
Hood River County Sheriff Joe
Wampler didn’t have time to worry on Tuesday about keeping his
job because he was too busy doing the job.
Wampler spent the afternoon and
evening of Oregon’s primary election handling two emergency
situations. A lost hiker had to be rescued after becoming
stranded on a vertical incline near Cascade Locks. In addition,
deputies surrounded a house on Portland Drive where a wanted
felon had been hiding.
“I just didn’t have time to worry
about my personal issues while I had people out in the field,”
said Wampler.
He said by midnight the action on
both fronts had ceased; the hiker was safely home and the felon
had become a fugitive. So, he sat down to contemplate the vote
tally. By 132 votes — 51 percent — he had edged out Detective
Bob Davidson and won a fifth term in office.
“I just thought, ‘Thank you, thank
you, thank you,’ because this is something that I really wanted
to do,” said Wampler, 54.
Davidson was unable to be reached
for comment about the results of the election. He captured 3,405
votes to Wampler’s 3,537.
The incumbent sheriff had never
come as close to being defeated as he was on May 20. Wampler
said that gave him pause for thought — and a realization that
some changes needed to be made in his management style.
Read more of
Wampler's comments, along with other election stories, in
Saturday's Hood River News
View complete
Hood River County results
View statewide results |
