Sheriff runoff election between Tompkins and Darr neck-and-neck

With 14 of 27 precincts reporting, incumbent John Darr holds a 2,256 to 2,163 lead over Democrat Donna Tompkins in the runoff election for sheriff, not including absentee and early votes

In five days of early voting last week, 3,725 Columbus residents voted at the midtown Citizens Service Center off Macon Road.

In the Nov. 8 General Election, Tompkins had 29,866 votes to Darr’s 21,608, or 44.3 to 32 percent. With Republican Mark LaJoye taking 20.2 percent and write-in candidate Pam Brown drawing 3.4 percent, neither of the top two had the majority needed to win outright.

Brown on Monday endorsed Darr in the runoff. LaJoye endorsed Tompkins in a news conference on Nov. 15, as did Democrat Robert Keith Smith, formerly a district attorney’s investigator whom the elections board disqualified from the May 24 Democratic Primary.

The elections board disqualified both Smith and Brown on March 30 for failing to meet a filing deadline. The board later disqualified Tompkins and LaJoye for similar reasons, but a Superior Court judge overturned the board in their case. A different judge upheld the board’s disqualifying Smith and Brown, after which Brown qualified as a write-in candidate.

The lawsuit issue

A prominent campaign issue has been Darr’s lawsuit against city leaders, which claims they violated Columbus’ charter by dictating his office’s budget rather than abiding by the one he submitted for council’s approval.

Tompkins, a retired sheriff’s captain, has said the lawsuit reflects Darr’s failure to deal professionally with the city. Voters must keep in mind that if he wins Tuesday, that dysfunction will continue, she said.

“I want people to consider that we’re going to have four more years of the same,” she said last week. That means taxpayers will continue to fund the litigation, paying both Darr’s attorney fees and the city’s.

She has pledged to drop the suit, institute financial accountability to keep the office’s operations within the budget approved by council, and restore trust between the sheriff and city leaders.

Darr has been Muscogee’s sheriff since 2008, when as a Democrat he defeated incumbent Ralph Johnson, an independent. Darr became an independent after Brown nearly unseated him in the Democratic Primary in 2012, when a recount showed she lost by about 60 votes out of more than 17,000.

The sheriff oversees the county jail, and Darr has said he must have the funding needed to deal with “the rising cost of health care and pharmaceuticals, which must be provided to inmates by state law.”

More than 70 percent of jail inmates need prescription medications, he said, and his staff provides those at the least expense possible.

Darr last week recommended voters visit his website sheriffjohndarr.com to review his accomplishments since he took office in 2009. Among the those cited are the Rising Star program that honors local scholars, Project HomeSafe that gives away gunlocks, and the National Take Back Initiative to collect and dispose of unused prescription drugs.

Darr’s administration also has established specialized dorms in the jail, such as a veterans dorm, fatherhood dorm and mental health dorm.

This story was originally published December 6, 2016 at 7:34 PM with the headline "Sheriff runoff election between Tompkins and Darr neck-and-neck."