GOP-strong areas help Stone in sheriff primary

GOP-strong areas help Stone in sheriff primary

The chief said he tries to be ‘100 percent professional.’

By D.A. WILKINSON

VINDICATOR SALEM BUREAU

SALEM — A little-known law enforcement officer in Columbiana County apparently won the Republican primary for sheriff because he is well known in Salem and Perry Township.

Those two areas are a Republican stronghold in the county, said David Johnson, a member of the county board of elections, the chairman of the county Republican party, and a Salem resident.

“He’s very well known there,” Johnson said Wednesday.

Raymond Stone received 3,107 votes in Tuesday’s primary, topping two retired members of the sheriff’s office.

He beat his nearest competitor by five votes, according to complete but unofficial results.

Jerry Herbert of New Waterford, a former sheriff’s office detective, got 3,102 votes as the nearest candidate.

Daniel MacLean of Wellsville, a former administrator at the county jail, got 2,557 votes.

Perry Township has a low crime rate, which keeps Stone out of the news. He said the township has no bars or schools, which limit fights, and no Wal-Mart, which limits theft arrests.

The chief said he is known in the northern portion of the county, but is unknown south of Lisbon.

Johnson said he wasn’t sure why Stone resonated with voters.

“He’s got a good reputation. He’s a fresh face,” Johnson speculated.

Stone said, “Maybe people are ready for a change.”

The chief said that part of his vote may have been a backlash against the sheriff’s office after Sheriff David Smith was arrested on a charge of drunken driving. He withdrew from the race and has indicated he will enter a plea.

A friend of Stone’s, who did not want to be identified, said the chief is always professional.

“Yes,” Johnson said. “He’s just a real classy guy.”

Stone said, “I try to be 100 percent professional.”

That’s something he said he tells his officers, especially since the cruisers now have cameras and microphones that record arrests and would also record any police misconduct.

Stone, 51, was born and reared in Salem. He started working part time at the Washingtonville police department in 1979. He went to full time in 1984, and then joined Perry Township and became chief, both in 1994.

The Republican party could have endorsed a candidate but chose not to, Johnson said. But the three candidates each ran a clean campaign with the plan that two of the candidates would support the winner.

Herbert surged ahead late in the evening when precincts from Unity Township came in.

But the board of elections must count about 516 votes that were not included in the complete but unofficial results.

The so-called provisional ballots were cast by people who moved but had not changed their address with the elections board, or had moved into an area and hadn’t registered.

That process will take at least 20 days.

Stone said he is aware of the slim margin between his votes and Herbert’s. If the results change, he said, he’ll support Herbert.

wilkinson@vindy.com