Former Kanawha County sheriff and longtime lawman Mike Rutherford is asking voters to return him to the sheriff’s office, and as long as he is willing to serve, Kanawha County should take him up on the offer.
Voters know exactly what they are getting in Mike Rutherford, who was elected sheriff in 2004 and served two terms.
His tenure was marked by calm competence and professionalism. He settled counter-productive squabbles and lawsuits with other elected officials around the courthouse, distractions left over from the previous sheriff, Dave Tucker, who now faces Rutherford in the Democratic primary.
Mike Rutherford has served as chief deputy to his brother John Rutherford, who has been sheriff since 2012 and plans to retire at the end of his term.
Mike Rutherford, both as sheriff and chief deputy, deserves the gratitude and support of people of Kanawha County. He quietly goes about the department’s business with respect and civility. He has created a cooperative bureau among the county’s various police agencies that has led to solving crimes and arresting perpetrators. He pays attention to research and updates the department’s actions accordingly.
He approaches the tragic drug addiction crisis in this area with a sensitive, informed mind. He helped to establish the county’s drug court in 2005. Last summer, the Kanawha Sheriff’s Department became the first police agency in the state to send officers out equipped with naloxone, a drug that can stop an opioid overdose. When we spoke with him last month, Rutherford said deputies had saved three people with the drug.
You can’t arrest your way out of this problem,” he has said.
Numerous Kanawha County mayors and public safety organizations have endorsed Rutherford, including the West Virginia Sheriff’s Association, West Virginia Deputy Sheriff’s Association, the St. Albans Fraternal Order of Police, the South Charleston Fraternal Order of Police and Charleston Professional Firefighters Local 317, which speaks to the morale of officers under his leadership.
The Kanawha County Deputy Sheriffs Association, which usually does not endorse, broke with tradition this year to recommend Rutherford.
At election time, voters often complain that they aren’t voting for a candidate so much as voting against another one. In the Kanawha sheriff’s race, voters have the opportunity to gladly vote for a hardworking, knowledgeable, proven public servant in Mike Rutherford.