Tim Parker wins sheriff race

Home City News Tim Parker wins sheriff race
Tim Parker wins sheriff race
The front of Hillsdale's city hall/Facebook
The front of Hillsdale’s city hall/Facebook

Despite revelations that he violated the Hatch Act during the primary election, Lt. Tim Parker defeated write-in candidate Tammy Dow in the Hillsdale County sheriff election on Tuesday night.

Parker took an overwhelming majority early on in the night, and ended the night with 14,940 votes against Tammy Dow’s 1,153.

According to an Oct. 6 letter from Erica S. Hamrick of the Office of Special Counsel, an independent federal agency, Parker violated the Hatch Act during the primary election. He wore his sheriff’s uniform in photos on his campaign’s Facebook page and billboards, which was a violation.

“Once OSC informed Lt. Parker of his violation, he immediately took steps to come into compliance with the law by removing photographs in which he appears in uniform from his campaign billboards and his official campaign Facebook page,” said Hamrick, the OSC’s Hatch Act Unit deputy chief. “Lt. Parker has been advised that should he engage in activities prohibited by the Hatch Act in the future, OSC would consider it a knowing and willful violation of the law that could result in disciplinary action.”

Parker won the Aug. 3 primary election against fellow Republicans Dow and Jon-Paul Rutan in a landslide, but Dow reentered the race as a write-in candidate on Sept. 26 due to allegations that Parker had violated a federal election law.

“However it turns out, I’m sure it will be the best for the county,” Dow said. “I probably started a little too late. I didn’t get around as far as I could’ve. It’s a big county.”

Nevertheless, Parker garnered enough support to earn the position of Hillsdale County Sheriff.

“No surprise. I defeated the person who wanted to run against me in the primary election,” Parker said. “I really did not have any surprises. I did zero campaigning since the primary election.”

Parker was not worried about the election after Dow announced her candidacy. In the Aug. 3 primary, Parker won with 4,534 votes (67 percent), followed by 1,428 votes for Rutan (21 percent) and 798 votes for Dow (less than 12 percent).

“I took her attempt to do a write-in campaign as nothing. I took no action. I took no more action than a candidate who had no one running against them,” Parker said. “I didn’t place anything in campaign literature out. I didn’t go out anywhere.”

Parker will take office on Jan. 1.

“Some of my first priorities are to reorganize and complete policies and procedures that need updating,” Parker said. “And then just organization of the sheriff’s department from my angle.”