Yonni, they have never faced off in an election before. Beau Babka ran against Aaron Kennard in 2002 and lost. Babka ran for congress in the 3rd district in 2004 and lost. He ran as a democrat in both of those elections. In 2006 Jim Winder ran against Aaron Kennard and won. He appointed Beau Babka as Undersheriff. Babka was subsequently released from that position by Sheriff Winder, most likely because he was actively looking for another job (he was on a short list of candidates for Orange Co Sheriff after their Sheriff was booted out). Babka has been with Cottonwood Heights PD since leaving the Sheriff's Office. There is bad blood between the Sheriff and Chief Russo of CHPD over the way the CHPD was formed (CH formerly contracted with the county for services). When Babka announced his candidacy, he also announced that he was changing from democrat to republican. It has been a pretty quiet campain so far, much different that the Winder V. Kennard race 4 years ago.
From my personal point of view I think Winder has done a good job the last 4 years. The Sheriff's Office budget has been cut severely but he managed to not have to RIF any employees and the level of service has not fallen off. He was able to finally implement the UPD (the law enforcement bureau of the SO split off and became a cooperative police model) that had been in the works for many years under Sheriff Kennard. The Oxbow Jail was re-opened for drug and lifeskills programming. Critics of Winder site the UPD police fee as his biggest mistake, and Babka is using it as a campain talking point, but the truth of the matter is the fee was the idea of the county council.
I'm sure this race will heat up in the next few weeks. It is hard for me to say who I think will take this one. The Sheriff's office employees are pretty evenly split.
Wed Jan 23, 2013 6:46 pm by 
