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Governor-Appointed Vilas County Sheriff Says He'll Run For Election

Vilas County Sheriff Joe Fath says he’ll run for election to the office next year.  Fath was appointed sheriff upon the death of Frank Tomlanovich in June.  To remain sheriff, he’ll have to be elected in November. 

Fath says he has been planning to run for over two years – even before his appointment. 

He says during most of his 18 years as chief deputy, federal law required chief deputies to abandon their posts before running for sheriff.  That provision was recently changed.

“So that made it much easier for my decision to do that – but regardless, actually just prior to that happening I had made my decision that I was going to run for office the next term.”

Fath says his goals as sheriff include a staffing analysis of the department to check for shortcomings…especially within the patrol division. 

“This past year our budget was a challenge. Through the budget process, we had to end our contract with our prisoner transport service. And we will be assuming those duties with no increase in staffing. So that will be a challenge.”

Fath says he doesn’t know whether anyone will be running against him in next year’s sheriff’s election.   

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