Democrat wins Ada County coroner race, while longtime GOP coroner in Canyon is ousted

Ada County Coroner Dotti Owens has won re-election, defeating Republican challenger Nikole O’Neal with 52.7 percent of the vote.

Owens, a Democrat, was endorsed by former Ada County coroners Erwin Sonnenberg and Mike Johnson, both Republicans. A week before the election, they told the Idaho Statesman that the coroner needs to have experience in death investigation to effectively run the office.

Before she was elected in 2014, Owens had worked as medico-legal death investigator and forensic supervisor.

O’Neal touted her medical training. She’s a board-eligible medical laboratory scientist who has worked in pathology labs at local hospitals and is working on a master’s degree., she said in the Statesman’s Voter Guide. O’Neal and former Ada County Commissioner Sharon Ullman, who ran for that office again on Tuesday and lost, questioned the growth and spending of the coroner’s office on Owens’ watch.

The coroner’s office grew to 27 employees from 18 from 2016 to 2017. The budget grew to $2.9 million this fiscal year from $1.8 million in fiscal 2016. Owens attributed the cost increases to a pathologist going from part-time to full-time and the need for additional staff to reduce high turnover amid growing workload.

In her second term, Owens plans to focus on suicide prevention education and raising community awareness of the opioid crisis, Owens said in the voter guide.

Canyon County Coroner

Jennifer Crawford easily defeated longtime Canyon County Coroner Vicki DeGeus-Morris, a write-in candidate. Both are Republicans.

Crawford, 40, beat DeGeus-Morris, 63, in the GOP primary in May. DeGeus-Morris then opted to run as a write-in Tuesday’s general election. She did poorly: Crawford received 95.2 percent of the votes cast.

DeGeus-Morris was first elected coroner in 1990.

Crawford, who has worked in the coroner’s office for eight years, holds a bachelor’s degree in criminal justice with an emphasis on crime scene investigation, according to the Statesman Voter Guide.

She said in responses to the questionnaire that she plans to modernize the coroner’s office “from the inside out.”

“I believe it is extremely important to have a policy and procedures manual in place,” Crawford wrote. “Currently there is no policy and procedure manual, which not only puts the office at risk, but also allows the administration the ability to change the rules at any time, creating confusion. “

She also wants to create a mass fatality or disaster plan, one that works in concert with other agencies.

This story was originally published November 7, 2018 at 10:39 AM.