INDIAN RIVER COUNTY — After a bitter and expensive race for Indian River County Sheriff, incumbent Deryl Loar claimed victory over opponent Bill McMullen, at the Vero Beach Elks Club, Tuesday night.
Loar won with 3,021 more votes over his challenger. The final tally was 15,290 to 12,269.
Loar raised a campaign chest of over $179,000 by election night and overcame a rebellion by rank and file deputies who backed McMullen.
McMullen, a union endorsed candidate, raised over $117,000.
During the campaign, McMullen cast Loar as a slick administrator who didn’t support his hard-working deputies and didn’t deserve to remain in office.
Loar, who ran mostly on his record, countered that he backed his deputies, but budget constraints made it impossible to give the raises he would have liked.
Aside from no raises, during the race McMullen accused Loar of hurting morale by suspending or firing deputies who made mistakes, rather than retraining them.
Loar responded that when a deputy was repeatedly out of line — say, knocking around suspects — it was time to “police the police.”
McMullen’s criticism of Loar earned McMullen union support and union-paid advertising, as well as the support of dozens of deputies and their families who staged more than 50 honk-and-waves on corners with McMullen signs, which seems to have paid off in spades with a McMullen victory.
But neither the in-house backing nor union support appears to have aligned with the wishes of the voting public who obviously preferred Loar.
At 8:40 p.m. Tuesday, Loar had 15,290 votes and McMullen 12,269.
The differences between the two candidates was glaring — not only when it came to issues but also campaign style: McMullen frequently wore a golf shirt and khakis and moved around a room when he spoke, gesturing frequently.
He often used analogous descriptions to answer questions rather than responding to the basic issue.
Loar, on the other hand, usually wore a dark suit and tie, and stood in one place, limiting his gestures. He answered questions more directly.
As a result, McMullen seemed more energized and focused on being a deputy’s deputy, while Loar seemed calmer and more articulate.
Apparently, it was Loar’s style that won over voters.
A major issue of the campaign was a disagreement over what road patrol shifts deputies should have. McMullen supported 12-hour shifts that tend to give deputies more over-time pay, while Loar supported the 10-hour shifts currently in use, which cut down on overtime.
Related to the patrol shift disagreement was the most contentious issue of the race: Whether Loar administrators had altered public records on patrol zones, while he turned a blind-eye.
After a 32963 investigation of deputy zone coverage that strongly suggested records had been altered, McMullen accused Loar of condoning fraud.
Loar first responded that there were errors made in duplicate sets of records but no intentional deceit. But, he recently said he needed to learn more about what happened.
