By Sandra McKinney, CVPost Board member
. . .or at least there will be following the Nov. 8 election for both Eau Claire and Chippewa counties.
Candidates for the office in both counties answered previously prepared questions at a Monday night candidate forum at the Community Table, organized by EXPO and JONAH. Some 60 people attended the event in person, along with online attendees, and both groups had an opportunity to submit questions toward the end of the forum.
The candidates for Eau Claire County sheriff who will be on the November ballot are Republican Don Henning and Democrat Dave Riewestahl. In Chippewa County, the Republican candidate is Travis Hakes and his Democratic opponent is Chris Kowalczyk.
One topic that was discussed concerned a newly implemented Eau Claire County procedure allowing eligible prisoners in the county jail to vote. If they meet the voter eligibility requirements and have no active felony conviction, those prisoners can vote at the jail. This effort was spearheaded by Chippewa Valley Votes (CVV), working with Eau Claire County.
Chippewa County does not yet have a similar provision in place but is expected to follow Eau Claire County’s lead.
Candidates’ backgrounds
Kowalczyk has 34 years of law enforcement experience and currently serves under his brother, who will be retiring as Chippewa County sheriff. The candidate began his law enforcement training at Chippewa Valley Technical College and his background also includes drug task force, SWAT team leader and investigation
experience.
Hakes, a former Elk Mound police chief, has been in law enforcement for 16 years and currently works as a patrol officer in Cornell. He said one of his goals is to obtain body cams for county police officers.
Riewestahl has a B,S. degree in criminal justice from UW-Milwaukee and has been with the Eau Claire County Sheriff’s Department since 2007. He is currently a captain and heads up the county’s Jail Administration.
Henning has more than 30 years of law enforcement experience, including work in corrections, patrol and investigations. He has also worked as a fire fighter and first responder.
Full candidate information pages are available on the Internet and all four candidates have Facebook pages that further identify their position on issues as well as their goals for the role of sheriff.
Voters registered at event
The CVV organization had a voter registration table at the Monday event.
Among the attendees were various County Board members. The sheriff’s departments in all counties report to their County Boards as well as to the governor.
EXPO (Ex-Incarcerated People Organizing) is a state-wide organization of people formerly imprisoned and JONAH (Joining Our Neighbors Advancing Hope) is a faith-based organization addressing justice issues in the Chippewa Valley.
Correction: An earlier version of this story reversed the party affiliations of Travis Hakes and Chris Kowalczyk. The Post regrets the error.