CANDIDATES

Richard K. Jones. Hometown: Liberty Township. Age: 51. Occupation: Police officer. Experience: 28 years in corrections and law enforcement, including 11 years as Butler chief deputy. Education: Hocking Technical College, associate's degree in corrections (1979); Wilmington College, bachelor's degree in criminal justice (1981); master's degree in corrections, Xavier University (1984). Personal: Married with two children. Quote: "Basically, it is the experienced versus the non-experienced. I am second-in-command of the eighth-largest sheriff's office in Ohio. I manage a $25 million budget and oversee 340 employees." Dale S. Richter Hometown: Trenton Age: 35 Occupation: Police officer Experience: 14 years in law enforcement. Education: Associate's degree in law enforcement, University of Cincinnati (1990). Personal: Married with two children. Quote: "I am a road-tested police officer, detective, shift commander and undercover investigator. Our deputies and taxpayers need a sheriff who understands what deputies face daily."

ELECTION SECTION

• Election 2004 page

Billboards of both candidates are along major arteries, and significant numbers of signs are throughout residential areas.

The men behind the signs - Sheriff's Chief Deputy Richard K. Jones and Springboro police officer Dale S. Richter - want to assume the seat of Sheriff Harold Don Gabbard, who retires at the end of this year after heading the department since 1993.

Jones' name and face were familiar in the county before the campaign began; Richter was virtually unknown.

Jones also has the advantage of being a Republican in a Republican-dominated county. He has amassed a $137,000 campaign fund, the largest of any Butler County candidate on the Nov. 2 slate. That includes $10,000 from the county Republican party and numerous small contributions from businesses, citizens and current sheriff's employees.

Richter, a Republican who turned Democrat, has had to bankroll his own campaign. A successful cattle farmer, he loaned $39,500 to his election effort and reported just one $25 contribution from a citizen on his latest expense report

Richter received no money from the Democratic party. That's because the party had nothing to spare, said Rusty Thomas, the Democrats' political director.

"To be a Democrat and run in this county, you have to really want what you're running for," Thomas said, noting Butler Republicans outnumber Democrats 2-to-1. "You have to be willing to handle most of the burden yourself."

But Jones "has not taken one thing for granted," said Joe Statzer, Republican party spokesman.

"He has been at every function, and he's done it all year, not just during the campaign season," Statzer said. "His signs are everywhere."

Jones has served as the Butler sheriff's second-in-command for 11 years.

During 1990-91, Richter worked short stints for the Milford Police Department and the Butler County Sheriff's Office before joining the Springboro force.

Richter says he has something Jones doesn't: experience as a road officer.

"I fight crime every day and I see it from a real-life perspective," he said, "not from behind a big desk."

But Jones said Richter's background hasn't prepared him for the responsibilities.

"You can't just want to be sheriff. You've got to be trained to be the sheriff," Jones said. "I am probably the most-educated and trained person to ever seek the office of sheriff in this county."

Enquirer reporter John Kiesewetter contributed.