7 candidates want to be the next Benton County sheriff

Seven people applied to serve as Benton County sheriff for the next 1 1/2 years.

The applicants seeking appointment to the position came in after Sheriff Jerry Hatcher was overwhelmingly recalled in an Aug. 3 countywide election.

Since Hatcher was elected to the office as a Republican, it now is up to the Benton County Republican Party to choose the top three candidates to serve out the rest of his term.

The party’s central committee — consisting of about 120 precinct committee officers, or PCOs — are to meet Thursday night to hear from all seven applicants and vote.

Once finalized, the names of the top three selected by the party will be forwarded to the Benton County commissioners.

The commission will hold its own interviews of those candidates. It has until mid-October to appoint a sheriff, who will hold the office through 2022.

Sheriff’s Commander Jon Law, a longtime Benton sheriff’s employee who supported the recall effort, was chosen to serve as the interim sheriff until someone is appointed.

If the commission’s appointee wants to continue as sheriff, the person will have to run for election in 2022.

Mike Massey, chairman of the Benton County Republican Party, described it as an honor for the precinct committee officers to be able to vet the candidates and present three names to the county commission.

The candidates were individually interviewed by the party’s Nominating Committee in advance of the Thursday, Sept. 2, meeting so the committee could rank them for the PCOs to consider in trying to settle on three people.

Former state Rep. Bill Jenkin, chairman of the Nominating Committee, told the Tri-City Herald they were not comfortable releasing the names of the applicants before the meeting.

Some of the candidates do not have law enforcement experience, but have leadership experience, he said.

Of those applicants with current or previous experience in law enforcement, a number of them were in the Benton County Sheriff’s Office, Jenkin said.

Each candidate was asked how they would deal with the fractured department and low morale in the aftermath of Hatcher’s recall.

“That was on every one of the candidate’s minds. Every one of them wants the healing done and the listening done,” said Jenkin. “And that’s a good thing because there has to be healing and there has to be listening because there was so much divisiveness, even within the party, that is going to have some lasting effects.”

Hatcher had been the sheriff since May 2017.

He became the first government official in Benton County to lose office in a recall election, and the first elected sheriff in Washington state to be recalled by the voters.

The recall petition alleged eight charges, including intimidating witnesses and public servants in investigations, retaliating against them, tampering with physical evidence and violating his oath of office.

This story was originally published September 2, 2021 at 12:59 PM.