Easy pick for Ada County sheriff must not be radical enough for one county commissioner

We weren’t sure it was going to happen, but Ada County commissioners made the correct — and incredibly easy — decision to appoint Ada County Sheriff’s Lt. Matt Clifford as the new sheriff.

Clifford was up against two much less-qualified candidates in Doug Traubel and Mike Chilton.

In listening to their interviews with county commissioners, it became painfully clear that Chilton and Traubel have no place in that seat, and it’s stunning that the Ada County Republican Central Committee would have put their names forward.

But with a commissioner like Ryan Davidson, we weren’t sure the group collectively would do the right thing.

As it turned out, Davidson somehow voted against Clifford. It’s unclear which candidate he supported.

Fortunately, Democrat Kendra Kenyon and Rod Beck — a newly elected Republican member of the board, like Davidson — saw clearly that Clifford was the best choice — by a mile.

Clifford was the lone candidate who has active Peace Officer Standards and Training certifications and was the only one with supervisory experience. Clifford had wide support, including the endorsement from former Ada County sheriffs Gary Raney and Vaughn Killeen, both well-respected for the jobs they did in that role.

Clifford was also supported by a wide range of people within or associated with the Sheriff’s Office, such as technicians, probation officers, prosecutors, former and current deputies, and detectives.

Even Code3to1, a conservative group that describes itself as a “fraternal club for retired law enforcement personnel living in Idaho,” threw its support behind Clifford.

In an informal poll on our story at idahostatesman.com, 1,111 people voted for Clifford, while just 76 voted for Traubel and 36 for Chilton.

Certainly, even some people who voted for Davidson in last November’s election must have supported Clifford for sheriff.

Traubel’s candidacy raised numerous concerns during his interview with commissioners, as he parroted Nazi propaganda that Jews “were the villain class in the Soviet Union” because they “led the Bolshevik revolution.” He couldn’t back up a previous claim he made that “at least 50%” of rape allegations are false.

Traubel was endorsed prominently on his website by former Arizona sheriff and “constitutional sheriff” proponent Richard Mack, who said he is good friends with Ammon Bundy, and once suggested putting women and children at the front lines as human shields in the Bundy family’s Nevada ranch dispute with federal agents.

In a letter to the editor of the Idaho Statesman, Traubel wrote that liberals were ready to replace the U.S. “with a Marxist tyranny run by Godless bureaucratic elites.”

Chilton raised his own set of red flags. He told commissioners Wednesday that his supporters would be afraid to come forward out of fear of retribution, citing some unknown “cabal.”

“The cabal that has controlled Ada County for three-and-a-half decades still is kind of in control and still is there,” Chilton said.

Chilton also declined to share his personnel file with commissioners because “we live in a world where Antifa, BLM, all kinds of people show up.”

All of this is a stark reminder of the consequences that elections have.

After all, commissioners Davidson and Beck appointed Raul Labrador, of all people, to the Central District Health board, and they unceremoniously dismissed well-respected Dr. Ted Epperly from that board just this week.

Friday’s vote for Clifford should have been unanimous, and the fact that Davidson voted against the clearly most qualified candidate shows that nothing — not even a no-brainer decision like this one — can be taken for granted.

This story was originally published July 2, 2021 at 4:05 PM.