I'm curious what any of you SL county residents think of the Sheriff's race between incumbent Jim Winder and challenger Beau Babka. Let's just say I have a personal interest in the outcome of this one and I'm curious as to what any of you think of the 2 candidates.

Not a SL county resident but I like saying "Beau Babka"...almost as much as saying "Officer Uppsen Downs".

Yonni, they have never faced off in an election before. Beau Babka ran against Aaron Kennard in 2002 and lost. Babka ran for congress in the 3rd district in 2004 and lost. He ran as a democrat in both of those elections. In 2006 Jim Winder ran against Aaron Kennard and won. He appointed Beau Babka as Undersheriff. Babka was subsequently released from that position by Sheriff Winder, most likely because he was actively looking for another job (he was on a short list of candidates for Orange Co Sheriff after their Sheriff was booted out). Babka has been with Cottonwood Heights PD since leaving the Sheriff's Office. There is bad blood between the Sheriff and Chief Russo of CHPD over the way the CHPD was formed (CH formerly contracted with the county for services). When Babka announced his candidacy, he also announced that he was changing from democrat to republican. It has been a pretty quiet campain so far, much different that the Winder V. Kennard race 4 years ago.

From my personal point of view I think Winder has done a good job the last 4 years. The Sheriff's Office budget has been cut severely but he managed to not have to RIF any employees and the level of service has not fallen off. He was able to finally implement the UPD (the law enforcement bureau of the SO split off and became a cooperative police model) that had been in the works for many years under Sheriff Kennard. The Oxbow Jail was re-opened for drug and lifeskills programming. Critics of Winder site the UPD police fee as his biggest mistake, and Babka is using it as a campain talking point, but the truth of the matter is the fee was the idea of the county council.

I'm sure this race will heat up in the next few weeks. It is hard for me to say who I think will take this one. The Sheriff's office employees are pretty evenly split.

Good debate between the 2 candidates on KSL's Doug Wright show today. They will probably have a transcript online.

I am interested to see the results of this race, for me the SO is a possible future employer, so seeing who my boss would be and what his policies are. I think Sheriff Winder has done a good job. How does Babka propose to make the SO better than Winder has done? What is your interest in this race Scotty? I think if I remember correctly your in corrections aren't you?

Click the link and play the video to see the debate. The debate clips start after the news story video: http://www.ksl.com/?nid=148&sid=12780709