MONROE, Wis. — Amid the amped-up rhetoric about crime in the 2022 election, sheriffs on both sides of the aisle implore voters to do the hard work: ignore the talking points and do your homework on the candidates’ records.
“It takes work on the voters’ part,” said Green County Sheriff Jeff Skatrud. “We all have to do that, or try to do that.”
“You’ve got to do your homework, you’ve got to understand what each candidate stands for and not pay attention to the ads on either side,” said Grant County Sheriff Nate Dreckman.
Both sheriffs have endorsed in the U.S. Senate race — Dreckman backs incumbent Ron Johnson, and Skatrud supports challenger Mandela Barnes — but they both said their politics largely do not have any bearing on the work they do day in and day out.
They also say a lot of the imagery that voters may see in the campaign ads does not bear out what they see in real life.
“I think normal Wisconsin is not like that,” Skatrud said. “Our main criminal activity is in our homes in Green County. It consists of domestic violence and child abuse… firearms violence is virtually non-existent.”
That is similar to what Dreckman sees in Grant County — gun violence is not a predominant concern compared to other criminal activity.
“There’s two things that we’ve kind of seen increase over the last two years: one is the influx of fentanyl… secondly is meth, the increase of meth,” he said.
The prevalence of meth in particular poses a holistic challenge for Dreckman, as he sees a rise in mental health issues spurred on by a more potent product.
“We’re a jail, we’re not a mental health facility. So we’re dealing with these folks here — we’re trying to do the best we can for them with limited resources,” he said.
This for him is why he is backing Johnson, as he sees a federal fix to the drug problem in his county.
“It’s directly related to the fentanyl coming across the border,” he said. “I just feel that [Johnson] he has the, I guess the best understanding of some of the needs of local rural law enforcement.”
Skatrud gave this recommendation to voters trying to decide.
“It comes down to if you trust that person or not,” he said. “You know, in a lot of times, it depends on what their values and how they see the world and how it relates to how you see the world.”
Not only have the candidates been pushing crime as an issue in the campaign, but both crime and gun violence consistently rank among the top concerns for voters of both parties in the two most recent Marquette Law School polls.
The two candidates running for U.S. Senate squared off in a debate Friday, discussing issues of crime and immigration. News 3 Now also continues to fact-check claims made in political ads in the Reality Check series.
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