5 minute read
Bryson, Wilke square off in highly anticipated Haywood sheriff race
BY CORY VAILLANCOURT POLITICS EDITOR
Earlier this year candidates for sheriff began campaigning across the region, hoping to earn the trust of voters who, in many cases, will see big changes in local law enforcement leadership.
The impending retirement of long-serving sheriffs Greg Christopher and Chip Hall in Haywood and Jackson counties, respectively, means voters will lose years of experience and institutional knowledge. In Swain County, voters will have the chance to reaffirm or reject the leadership of incumbent Curtis Cochran.
In all three counties, the Nov. 8 General Election will give to voters the opportunity to install leaders who will shape the future of local law enforcement for years to come. That future has never been more fraught with political landmines, as the debate over police power continues.
Sheriffs aren’t simply custodians of the county jails and the people in them; they have fiscal and human resource responsibilities and engage in community relations, legislative advocacy and interagency coordination.
But they’re also elected in partisan elections and can have substantial public policy influence locally or on a statewide basis.
This week, Smoky Mountain News reporters take a look at the policies and the people behind the badge.
Larry Bryson served briefly as interim sheriff in
2013. Donated photo
Bill Wilke ran for sheriff in 2010.
Donated photo
BY CORY VAILLANCOURT POLITICS EDITOR
After nearly 10 years in office, Haywood County Sheriff Greg Christopher announced his retirement in Mach 2021, giving prospective candidates more than a year to contemplate their campaigns. Almost immediately, five men from two parties stepped up, seeking to replace him.
Christopher’s legacy will be as a sheriff who was heavily involved in the peripheral aspects of the job, from after-hours community meetings over coffee to behind-thescenes lobbying efforts before the General Assembly in Raleigh.
His progressive thinking in regard to recidivism and rehabilitation resulted in the Pathways Center, a Christ-centered shelter and kitchen ministering to some of Haywood County’s most vulnerable citizens while at the same time saving taxpayers thousands in jail expenses.
Even Pathways couldn’t ameliorate the need for a new $16 million jail expansion project that wasn’t exactly welcomed in all quarters of the community, but Christopher was still able to shepherd the project to the finish line.
So well respected was Christopher that during the two elections in which he stood for office — Christopher was appointed to finish out the term of former Sheriff Bobby Suttles in 2013 — he never once faced an opponent.
As a Democrat in a red county that’s only gotten redder, Christopher remains unique in that he’s one of only three from that party currently serving in a major countywide elected office.
Christopher came to the job with a great deal of law enforcement experience, albeit none of it with the Haywood County Sheriff’s Office.
That’s important to note, as the two candidates voters will choose from on Nov. 8 both offer a great deal of law enforcement experience that varies substantially in depth and breadth.
Democrat Larry Bryson briefly served as interim sheriff upon the resignation of Suttles, but that was long after Bryson started his law enforcement career with the HCSO in 1976. Bryson then worked for a decade as a Waynesville police officer, and even had a stint with Champion Paper’s private police force before returning to the sheriff’s office.
During his time at HCSO, Bryson has served in nearly every role imaginable. Detention officer. Deputy sheriff. Drug agent. Detective. Chief of detectives. Chief deputy. Since retirement in 2013, Bryson has worked as a U.S. Marshall, but is currently on leave for the duration of his campaign.
His opponent, Republican Bill Wilke, also has some pre-Christopher era history in Haywood County, as a candidate for sheriff in 2010. Wilke lost to Suttles by 6.5 points, but his story neither started or ended there.
A native of Maryland’s eastern shore, Wilke earned a psychology degree and spent four years on the Newport News police force before becoming a military police training officer with North Carolina’s Army National Guard.
At the same time, he became an Asheville police officer and served for 16 years until becoming a licensed private investigator in 2016. He currently serves as president of the Board of Directors of the North Carolina Association of Private Investigators, and recently retired from the National Guard as a colonel.
Although there are plenty of good reasons why the office of county sheriff shouldn’t be considered partisan in nature, right now it is. That would seem to give the Republican Wilke a slight edge in terms of numbers, but that hasn’t always been that way.
The last time a sheriff’s election was held, in 2018, Democrats held a numerical advantage in Haywood County, with more than 16,400 registered. At that time, there were 14,500 unaffiliated voters, and just 13,814 Republicans. The North Carolina State Board of Elections reported that as of Sept. 17, the entire situation had flipped.
Unaffiliated voters now number more than 16,600, with Republican registrants in a close second, at 15,830. Democrats are a distant third, with 12,805.
Like Wilke, success for the Democrat Bryson means courting voters outside of his own party.
“I told my wife not long ago that if Democrats vote, we lose, and if Republicans vote, we lose,” Bryson said.
Bryson’s been targeting unaffiliated voters with mailers and handshakes, trying to answer questions they may have about his candidacy.
Wilke has been doing much the same, attending events and making himself available for those same voters.
“I’m a Republican by personal choice, but I’m a sheriff for everybody, regardless of their political affiliation,” Wilke said. “The law does not make differences between Democrats and Republicans despite some efforts in social media by certain individuals to try to divide us along those lines.”
Indeed, there are only subtle philosophical differences between the two candidates, despite their partisan affiliations.
Neither really supports the expansion of
