Ramsey County Sheriff candidates debate at Fair

The road to the Minnesota State Fair is lined, literally, with signs of a very hot sheriff?s race. It?s a battle pitting the incumbent Ramsey County Sheriff of 12 years, Bob Fletcher, against the man who led the Saint Paul Police Department for the same number of years, Bill Finney.

Tuesday, before a live radio audience at the Fair, the two candidates took the gloves off and showed why there?s no love lost between them. It was, suffice it to say, a classic personality clash.

?You two guys don?t like one another, Chief?? asked AM 1500 co-host Mark O?Connell.

Finney began to answer in a diplomatic tone, ?Well I think we have different styles of how we enforce law enforcement and serving the community ? ?

He was interrupted by O?Connell?s co-host Ron Rosenbaum, ?The answer is yes.?

Both men smiled as the audience laughed.

Both Finney and Fletcher have impressive resumes when it comes to law enforcement and public service. Finney spent 33 years on the Saint Paul police force, while Fletcher spent 18 years in the same department before becoming sheriff. Finney was a Saint Paul school board member, and Fletcher was a city council member in Saint Paul?s fourth ward.

In the State Fair debate, the Democrat Finney contrasted his management style with the Sheriff?s.

?Old-fashioned heavy handed law enforcement intimidation,? Finney said of Fletcher?s style, ?My way of doing things is to serve the public, the public?s the most important for me.?

Fletcher shot back, ?It?s easy to say this intimidation thing. I?m sure if you talk to the Saint Paul police officers that decided they didn?t want to support Bill, they would see if from a completely different glass.?

The Saint Paul Police Federation and the Ramsey County Deputy Sheriffs Association have both endorsed Fletcher. Finney countered that the deputy?s organization is a registered political action committee formed after he entered the race. And he argued he has the support of most rank-and-file officers.

At one point in the debate Finney told of questions he?s heard from voters on the campaign trail.

?The second question was 'who is the sheriff?' Now after 12 years of being in office, Bob, people should know who you are and be able to recognize you without your uniform on. They recognize me in the county without my uniform.?

Finney responded in kind, ?Bill and I have different priorities. I don?t think the public knowing and seeing you and worshiping you is exactly that important.?

Fletcher accused Finney of being missing-in-action when it comes to building cooperation between law enforcement agencies and jurisdictions.

?He?s been absent when it comes to fighting the war on drugs, when it comes to fighting the war on gangs. I?ll tell you we had 98 Minnesota gang strike force meetings over a 7 year period. Bill attended one of them.?

Finney countered that he devoted his entire gang unit to the Minnesota gang strike force.

?I didn?t attend the meetings because I sent my assistant chief. And one of the reasons I didn?t attend is Bob and I tend to degrade to these little petty arguments.?

He also said he?d gone after crack houses in the Frogtown neighborhood and made solving the Coppage family gang killing a priority.

?There were some famous murders in Saint Paul where a gang killed five children, ages two to 11. And we went after those gangs, because they sold dope and thought they could kill babies on my street,? said Finney.

At one point in the debate Fletcher told of his years as an investigator, as a person charged with writing out criminal complaints against suspects. He said Finney, in all his years on the Saint Paul PD had never been an investigator.

?Without that investigative background frankly you don?t have a clue as to how to lead your organization,? said Fletcher to Finney, ?That is one of the major differences.?

The host Rosenbaum inserted, ?I take it Chief you don?t agree with that.?

Finney, shaking his head and grinning broadly, replied, ?No, I agree that Bob?s a good police officer. He?s not a good leader. The purpose of a leader is to put the round pegs in the round hole.?

In the end both fighters left the ring smiling, apparently satisfied they?d landed some good punches in round one. Round two comes with another State Fair radio debate on Thursday morning.

The confrontational tone shouldn?t surprise too many observers. The race has had a combative tone from the beginning, when Sheriff Fletcher sued to keep Finney from calling himself Bill ?Chief? Finney on the official ballot. Fletcher won that legal battle, and Finney will now be known as ?Chief? only in his campaign pamphlets.

By John Croman, KARE 11 News.

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