Wansley Upsets Incumbent For Wood County Sheriff
By LAUREN GROVER
Staff Writer
QUITMAN - In complete but unofficial results, Quitman Police Chief Bill Wansley squeezed through a victory on Tuesday night for the Wood County Sheriff post, beating incumbent Dwaine Daugherty in the Republican primary by 357 votes.
Staff Writer
QUITMAN - In complete but unofficial results, Quitman Police Chief Bill Wansley squeezed through a victory on Tuesday night for the Wood County Sheriff post, beating incumbent Dwaine Daugherty in the Republican primary by 357 votes.
"We're just tickled to death it worked out this way," Wansley said Tuesday after the ballot counts were finalized. "The good Lord's been good to us, and this has been an answer to prayer."
Wansley received 3,402 votes or 52.8 percent. Daugherty re-ceived 3,045 votes or 47.2 percent.
Wansley will face no Democratic candidate in November. He ran once before, losing to Daugherty in the 2004 primary.
More than 4,200 residents voted for the sheriff's race on Election Day, according to Wood County election results.
Wansley was joined by his wife, Jeanette, and daughter, son-in-law and grandson as well as "a group of good friends" to celebrate the news, a win he's hoped for a long time, he said.
"I want to finish up with the city and get things taken care of there, because they've been good to me for the last 19 or 20 years," he said.
The police chief's platform fo-cused on the 50 deputies he's seen leave the sheriff's office in the last 37 months, he said.
Wansley hired four of those of-ficers to join him at the Quitman police department, he said. A few of the men who were fired from Daugherty's office joined Wan-sley on election night.
"A lot of folks have called and talked to me about how that was a high turnover," Wansley said. "They were concerned. I think that had a lot to do with the race. I think people just wanted a change."
A police chief with more than 20 years in law enforcement, Wansley has helped find grants to outfit six Quitman officers with new patrol cars, rifles and shot-guns, he said. He's in the process of getting new bullet-proof vests for his police officers.
Cracking down on the county's narcotics problems is top priority with a focus on manufacturing and trafficking, he said.
Once elected, Wansley hopes to improve community outreach for crime watch initiatives, solve illegal dumping problems and work with other government agencies to address the rampant stray animal situation.
Daugherty has served as sheriff for three years after 20-plus years in law enforcement.
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