NORTH HAVERHILL — The heir apparent, the outside challenger and the inside veteran: when it comes to picking which one will be the Democratic nominee for Grafton County sheriff there are some distinct differences among the three candidates. 

But all three primary candidates share one thing in common: each is a career law enforcement officer.

Given Grafton County’s traditional blue leanings, whomever is nominated by voters to be the Democratic nominee has a good shot at becoming the county’s next sheriff. Former Grafton County Sheriff’s Deputy Todd Matthew Eck is the only candidate seeking the Republican nomination.

The pending retirement of current Grafton County Sheriff Jeff Stiegler, who was first elected in 2018 and is currently completing his third term in the job, has created an opening for the trio of primary candidates on the Democratic side.

Stiegler said by stepping down he’s making good on a promise he made six years ago.

“The first thing I told everybody when I got here was I hope to serve three terms because I’m a big believer in term limits for sheriff,” Stiegler told the Valley News recently. “I just don’t think someone should stay in an elected law enforcement position for an extended period of time.”

The duties of county sheriffs can differ greatly around the country but the Grafton County Sheriff’s Office’s chief tasks are Superior Court security, transportation of inmates between prison and the courthouse, serving civil warrants, and locating and arresting charged offenders wanted on criminal warrants.

The following profiles of the Democratic primary candidates for Grafton County sheriff are based on their presentations during a “candidates’ forum” hosted over Zoom last Wednesday evening and individual interviews with the Valley News.

The heir apparent

Deputy Eric James, 54, who is endorsed by Stiegler to succeed him, has been with sheriff’s department for 22 years and rose steadily through the ranks to captain and No. 2 under the chief before “retiring” last summer because, as he put it, “there were a couple of things I wanted to get done in life.”

That included 28 days backpacking across the Swiss Alps with his wife from Liechtenstein to France.

When he got back, James, a Thorton, N.H., resident, was offered a part-time “dream gig” working on the state’s internet crimes unit against children covering the North Country. He said he decided to run in the primary for sheriff at the urging of colleagues in the department.

“It had never been a goal of mine,” James said.

If elected, James said, one of his priorities would be “regionalization” of the sheriff department’s resources, such as sharing the department’s skills in computer forensics with local town police departments that don’t have the capability.

“The 1980s version of a deputy that we’re just going to serve civil process or transport bodies from point A to point B and do courthouse security has got to go away,” James said, noting that sheriff deputies have jurisdictional authority to make arrests anywhere in the state. “Our deputies need to be versed in backing up (other) agencies and responding to calls.” 

Other top priorities include getting the department’s “drone program” up and running, making a hard effort to fill the two vacant deputy positions and “solidifying a union contract” with the county. (Members of the department voted last November to unionize and join Teamsters Local 633 in Manchester).

“Our staff need to have a contract to be treated fairly,” James said.

The outside challenger

Although she’s only 30 years old, Landaff, N.H., native, Plymouth State grad Jill Myers, now a special investigator with the Littleton Police Department, said bringing down Grafton County's backlog of fugitive warrants would be a priority for her if she were to be elected sheriff.

“It’s maddening because there’s a lot of victims behind all those warrants and those victims aren’t seeing any justice while those warrants are just sitting and no one’s doing anything,” she told the Valley News earlier this week.

Myers — who also did a two-year stint with the Grafton County Sheriff’s Office and reached the rank of sergeant before she left — also said it is important to put the sheriff’s department’s resources to use on a “regional” basis by working closer with local police departments in the sharing of information and on such matters as education and training of officers.

“It takes the burden off (local police departments) by trying to find” a spot at the police academy for training sessions, she said, adding it also provides valuable networking opportunities for officers between the agencies who may find themselves working together when responding to a call for police.

The shortfall in troopers at New Hampshire State Police makes it more imperative that the sheriff’s department have closer connections with local police departments, many of which are understaffed themselves, according to Myers.

“The sheriff’s department is the asset that should be stepping up and helping as much as possible,” she said, especially when it comes to educating the public about the dangers of alcohol and drugs.

“We really need to step up and start creating programs to help,” she said, noting that they should be targeted at youths, who are being exposed to ever more lethal drugs laced with deadly narcotics such as fentanyl. 

As a Millennial, Myers also sees the need for the sheriff’s department to improve its digital communications outreach to the public through its website and via social media, which today are indispensable tools in community relations but which has never been a priority for the Grafton County Sheriff’s Office.

Myers believes her youth will work to the benefit of both the sheriff’s department and the public which it serves.

“I’ve seen the burnout police officers get toward the end of their career,” she said. “I don’t want to wait my entire career before stepping up to make change. That’s why I am running now.”

The inside veteran

A union contract would be a priority for part-time Deputy Sheriff Michael Tamulonis, 50, a who has worked in law enforcement since he joined the military at age 17 and served on the Dover, N.H., and Lincoln, N.H., police forces before jointing the Grafton County’s Office in 2005. He was there 16 years before retiring from full-time duty in 2021.

“There’s a stalemate,” Tamulonis said about negotiations for the union contract. “But I think there’s a happy middle ground that can be reached and we probably need some new blood to come in and start negotiations again.”

Like James, Tamulonis said he was encouraged by colleagues to run for sheriff and would also prioritize filling vacant positions in the department. He would also dedicate two deputies to work full time on executing the department’s backlog of outstanding criminal warrants, which currently stands at more than 400.

The sheriff’s department used to be in the practice of staging “warrant sweeps,” specified days during the year when every deputy in the department would work to track down and arrest defendants named in indictments or offenders who never showed up for their appointed court dates to address their criminal charges.

But in recent years there have been fewer warrant sweeps and Tamulonis said he wants to revive the practice.

“And these are not for misdemeanor crimes. These are warrants for felonies out of Superior Court,” he said.

Another area that Tamulonis wants to beef up is educating the county’s older residents about the dangers of fraud and scams, which have only become worse with everyone conducting their daily affairs — banking, paying bills and purchases — online.

He would do that by having officers trained in how to talk with older adults about financial scams and things they can do to avoid falling victim. Deputies can travel around to local senior centers to make presentations during meal times, which Tamulonis said is an opportune time to engage an audience.

“Not a given week goes by that I don’t get a phone call from someone who says ‘someone tried to scam me,’ ” Tamulonis said.

The New Hampshire primary election for state and local races will be held Tuesday, Sept. 10. The general election will take place on Nov. 5.

Contact John Lippman at jlippman@vnews.com.