In the May 17 primary election voting 10 days ago, three Republican candidates were competing for their party’s position on the General Election ballot in November, with no candidate on the Democrat side. In that closely-followed contest, Republican candidate Dave Kramer outdistanced the other two Republicans, incumbent Sheriff Greg Sprungl and current Sheriff Deputy David Schuman.
In the May 17 primary voting, Mr. Kramer won 1,080 votes, a little short of half of all the 2,287 votes cast in the race, with Mr. Sprungl receiving 23% of the votes and Mr. Schuman 30%.
With his primary election victory, and with no Democrat running for the office, it appeared that Mr. Kramer had essentially locked up the win in November for Boundary County Sheriff, with no opposition listed on the Democrat side of the ballot.
The next morning following the primary voting, however, Mr. Schuman announced he was looking at the possibility of continuing his campaign for Sheriff, hoping to win in November as a write-in candidate. "There are a number of people that are trying to persuade me to pursue a write in campaign," said Mr. Schuman in an e-mail to supporters the day after the primary election, and continued, "The least I can do is listen and see if we could come up with a plan.” He proposed a meeting of supporters to gauge interest in continuing his campaign. “Based on the amount of people that show up and what we decide, we will go from there," he said.
That meeting was held earlier this week at the Boundary County Extension Office, and the results encouraged Mr. Schuman to continue the race. “Based on an overwhelming amount of people that showed up in the Extension Office tonight,” he said in a video posted after the meeting, “we will be pursuing a write-in candidacy for the Sheriff position in November, for Boundary County."
Two days ago he formalized his intention by filing his paperwork with the County to run in the November election as a write-in candidate.
Mr. Schuman initially announced his candidacy for Boundary County Sheriff at least as far back as early 2014, as there is a story posted January 2014 on NewsBF regarding his run for the office. (that story can be seen by clicking here).
He has campaigned very actively for the office, especially over the past year, holding several “Meet and Greet” events at locations all over the county, and maintaining an active Facebook page and Wordpress page, also participating in the recent Candidate’s Forum.
He reports having worked in law enforcement for 36 years. At least part of his campaign approach for the office has been his alignment with the concept of a “Constitutional Sheriff.”
“A title that was thrown my way many years ago and has stuck is a Constitutional Peace Officer,” said Mr. Schuman in a campaign e-mail from June 2015, stating further, “The Idaho Constitutional Sheriff’s group, which endorses me, acts as a watchdog service for the people. Reporting to the people what County Sheriff is doing the right thing and which is not. I foresee a long pleasant relationship between myself and this group.”
“I can assure you that I will not allow the Federal Government to encroach upon our Constitutional rights on my watch,” he stated in his e-mail.
Boundary County voters can now anticipate campaigning to continue over the next five and a half months until the Sheriff election is ultimately decided this November.