Pages

Thursday, August 30, 2018

Heineman calls Sheriff Whitney "a respected community leader and a fine public servant"

To the Editor:

In any campaign, there are bound to be rumors and gossip circulating.  I thought that here it would be appropriate to offer some facts about Sheriff Whitney, which are indisputable and tell a lot about the kind of person that he is.  Rick Whitney, unlike his opponent, who as far as I can tell has never run for election anywhere, anytime, has run for county-wide office three times.  What is especially telling about these races is the strong and consistent support that he has received from those with whom he has worked.  In his first race for sheriff, in which among 4 primary candidates he was unsuccessful, he nonetheless garnered 71 percent of the vote from Bolivar, the town in which he had been police officer and chief for many years.  Later in the 2010 election for sheriff, he received 77 percentage of the vote county-wide, and from Bolivar, 87 percent of the vote cast there.  Perhaps even more telling, in his last race for sheriff, after having served a full term in that office, although unopposed, he received 80 percent of the county-wide vote.  This means that a significant number of non-Republicans voting in that election voted for him.  In other words Democrats, Independents, etc., moved from their lines to vote for Rick Whitney for sheriff on the Republican line.  The take-away from these numbers is that Rick Whitney has been a respected community leader and a fine public servant and that the voters whom he has represented have consistently confirmed this.
Sincerely,
Robert Heineman
Alfred, N.Y.