LETTER TO THE EDITOR by Steve Ackerman. REPLY by Bob Neugebauer.
On May 26, the Ada County Republican Central Committee held an election to recommend candidates for sheriff to the county commissioners. Randy Folwell and Steve Bartlett were presented to us. We reviewed the records of these two good candidates, listened to their statements, and asked each of them questions. A majority of us voted for Randy Folwell as our first choice and Steve Bartlett as our second choice.
The Statesman wrote that they “don’t know” what was the “deal breaker” that caused us to vote in the order we did. With all due respect, it doesn’t matter why — it was our prerogative as precinct committeemen. Our election should not be undermined by second-guessing.
I voted for Mr. Folwell because of his vast experience with the Ada County Sheriff’s Office, his diverse set of leadership posts, and his range of awards and certifications. I also supported him because I believed he would stand most firmly against state and federal intrusions into our county. We are best served if we begin with a sheriff who takes a strong position because it will give our fine commissioners the leverage they need. Thank you.
Steve Ackerman, Precinct 2211, Kuna
REPLY
I believe that Mr. Ackerman is too kind to the liberal media. The Statesman knew exactly what happened at the meeting. This is a typical move by the establishment controlled media. If they can’t explain something logically, they just say we have no idea of what could have happened.
Let me tell you what happened.
Two candidates were presented to the 80 some precinct committee representatives for Ada County, and when a conservative made a motion to ask the candidates questions it was put to a vote by the Chairman Fred Tilman. The vote was 46 to 43 in favor of asking questions of the candidates. Can you imagine that 43 establishment Republicans were willing to send in a name of recommendation without asking any questions of the candidates? This is why we know this whole process is a farce. The process proceeded, and the precinct representatives asked both candidates questions for 10 minutes. It was obvious after the questioning that Retired Captain Randy Folwell had done a better job at answering the questions, and the vote was taken to see who would be the number one candidate to be put before the Ada County Commissioners. Fred Tilman made the announcement that Randy Folwell had won by a very thin margin; however, we understand that the vote was not by a thin margin but by a substantial margin. Since this is a secret ballot they will never tell us what the actual vote was. As usual the establishment got their way with political pressure to get all three commissioners to vote for Steve Bartlett. We need to get the cronyism out of our state as the citizens of Idaho always wind up with the short end of the stick. We hope Randy Folwell will be a candidate in the 2016 primary where he will have an opportunity to get out and meet with the people and show that he was and is the better candidate to be Ada County Sheriff.
