State Democrats Decertifying Very Popular Pacific County, WA Sheriff

Caption: This writer is standing next to Pacific County Undersheriff Mike Ray who came out of retirement to work with Sheriff Daniel Garcia. Ric Gerig stands next to him. This photo was taken last May when Peninsula Patriots hosted a Law Enforcement Meet & Greet.

HUGE POWER GRAB

Democrats in Olympia have devised a way to push aside the voters and give themselves power over who should and should not be a county sheriff or police chief. It is called Senate Bill No. 5974 (SB 5974) which contains a number of tyrannical provisions, but the one that prevents Sheriff Garcia from running for re-election this November requires a sheriff or a police chief to have five years of law enforcement experience. Garcia will have only four years at election time.

Daniel Garcia was overwhelmingly elected in 2022 with 61% of the vote as a write-in candidate (write-in candidates are also being outlawed) who challenged the county’s Deep State incumbent. The five-year rule currently only applies to a handful of police chiefs across the state and ONE sheriff, Garcia, who is very popular, in part, because he has cleaned up a dysfunctional department that ignored the needs of county residents. Olympia has taken note of him. This writer believes the five-year provision was chosen specifically to disqualify Sheriff Garcia. Democrats could have chosen four years or ten years or any figure.

END RUN

Ray and Garcia have come up with a brilliant idea around this latest Democrat plot against voting rights: Undersheriff Ray, who had decades of experience as a Pacific County Deputy Sheriff before becoming undersheriff, will run for sheriff and he will appoint Garcia as his undersheriff. Ray is both well known and well liked. He will likely win in a landslide against the candidate chosen by the county’s Deep State: Rich Byrd. Despite the fact that he quit the sheriff’s office 20 years ago and has been selling cars in Astoria, Oregon, the county commissioners talked Byrd into running. Even though his law enforcement skills are way, WAY out of date, Byrd will qualify under the five-year rule.

The Pacific County Commissioners so detest the popular Garcia that they removed the 911 dispatch office and the county jail from the sheriff’s office under which they had operated for decades. This article details the Pacific County Commissioners numerous schemes against Sheriff Garcia during this short tenure: Click Here.

A DECADE OF SCHEMING

The last decade or so a scheme has been developed by the Democrat Party who hate the independence of county sheriffs. They have been chip, chip, chipping away at the citizens’ right to choose their sheriff at the ballot box and transfering that “right” to unelected, unnamed bureaucrats appointed by Democrats. This legislative session has seen a plethora of such bills. SEE ARTICLE LINKED BELOW.

Senate Bill No. 5974 (SB 5974) has already passed the senate with a Democrats voting for it and all Republicans voting against it. The house, also owned by the Hard Left, is expected to pass it and Governor Bob Ferguson is expected to sign it. After all, during his 12 years as attorney general he was instrumental in concocted many forms of “defunding police.” This is yet another. Under the bill, before being sworn in, an elected sheriff must first get the approval of a state “appointing authority.” I don’t need to tell my readers that NO independent-minded or constitutional sheriff will ever be sworn in again, the voters be damned.

Thirty of Washington’s 39 sheriffs, along with some county commissioners & prosecutors across the state, with the Spokane County prosecutor leading the way, are in the process of drafting a lawsuit to fight this bill once it has been enacted. It violates both the Washington Constitution and the US Constitution.