Benewah County Sheriff Loe, Resser

Two Republicans - one with police experience, the other with none - are facing off in the Benewah County sheriff’s race.

Dave Resser, a St. Maries bootmaker, takes on sheriff’s detective Robert Loe in the May 23 primary.

Sheriff Joe Blackburn is not seeking re-election to the $28,518-a-year job.

The winner of the Republican primary will run against Democrat Bill Tharp and independent Bill Rassmussen in the November election.

While Resser touts his outsider status, and Loe points to his experience on the force, both say they want to get the community involved to fight the growing number of methamphetamine-related crimes.

“The sheriff’s office and city police need citizen’s involvement,” said Resser, a 57-year-old St. Maries resident and former Boise contractor.

Resser said he wants to create a community-oriented policing program like the one in Spokane. There, volunteers staff neighborhood substations, taking reports and holding meetings.

Resser, who graduated from high school in Montana and moved to Benewah County 20 years ago, said he decided to run after friends asked him.

Resser says he has no law enforcement experience and doesn’t need any for the job.

“The sheriff is more an administrative and public relations person,” he said. “I want to bring back the idea of the peace officer.”

On his Web page, Resser accuses sheriff’s office of not treating the public with respect.

“The deputies are stopping me for no reason. Their attitude is belligerent,” he wrote.

His opponent, Robert Loe, a sheriff’s detective who has worked for the department for more than a decade, says that’s not true.

“I don’t feel that way,” he said.

Loe, 49, is running for sheriff after two unsuccessful tries.

Loe ran as a Democrat against former Sheriff Rodney Thormahlen in 1996.

The Fernwood, Idaho, resident was a patrol deputy with the department from 1977 to 1988. He worked for the county road crew and ran the waste transfer station until being hired back on with the department in 1997.

During that election, he said the sheriff should be out in the community meeting people.

Loe said he would like to see officers placed in schools to help educate children about drugs and law enforcement.

“The kids growing up right now are going to be citizens in a few years,” he said.

Both say overcrowding at the Benewah County Jail is an issue.

Built in 1924 to hold 16 people, the inmate population sometimes soars to 25 or 30 on the weekends, said Sheriff Joe Blackburn.

“It needs to be replaced,” Loe said, but said Benewah is a poor county with a small taxable population.

There has been talk of working with the tribe to build a jointly funded jail on tribal land, but Loe said he doesn’t see that happening.

He said citizens want to keep the jail in St. Maries, along with other county government offices, but funding is something he would have to find from county commissioners.

Resser said, he too, would also have to accept what county commissioners decide.

“It’s really not up to me. I will work with the county commissioners in whatever way we can,” he said.

See individual profiles by name of candidate.