Jackson County Sheriff Darryl Forté wins primary over former sheriff Mike Sharp
Incumbent Jackson County Sheriff Darryl Forté blocked a comeback attempt by his predecessor in Tuesday’s Democratic primary, trouncing former sheriff Mike Sharp by a ratio of 4 to 1.
With the victory, Forté is assured of winning his first full four-year term in office this fall, as he faces no opposition in the general election. He became sheriff in May 2018.
Sharp was endorsed by the union representing the 104 deputies in the sheriff’s office, as well as the umbrella union whose members include law enforcement officers in eastern Jackson County, as well as in Platte, Clay, Ray, Cass and Bates counties.
Forté had the support of County Executive Frank White, who appointed the former Kansas City police chief to replace Sharp on an interim basis when Sharp resigned amid scandal in April 2018.
Party regulars then picked Forté as their nominee that summer to compete in the general election for the chance to fill out the final two years of Sharp’s third term. He went on that fall to beat Republican David Bernal in the general election by a two-to-one margin, his win never in doubt in a county whose voters haven’t picked a Republican for sheriff in nearly a century.
Forté, 58, retired from the police department in 2017 after 31 years, the last five and a half years as chief. He had begun attending law school when the opportunity to become sheriff arose and cut short his attempt to become a lawyer, settling, instead, for a master’s degree in law, he said.
Sharp, 61, won his first general election by a landslide in 2008, after finishing far in front in an open, four-person primary to replace Sheriff Tom Phillips, who’d stepped down for another job.
A reserve officer for the Kansas City Police Department for 24 years, Sharp raised more money than the other candidates in that primary and personally lent his campaign $100,000. At the time, he was a business consultant who owned a carpet warehouse for 18 years.
Sharp twice won re-election, in 2012 and 2016, facing only token opposition. He resigned as news surfaced about the raises and other favorable treatment he showed a now-former girlfriend who worked at the sheriff’s office.
Prosecuting attorney Jean Peters Baker was considering whether to file a legal action that might have expelled him from office at the time of the disclosures in court documents. But Sharp chose to leave voluntarily and apologized for his lapse in judgment, which cost taxpayers hundreds of thousands of dollars in legal costs from discrimination cases filed by other employees related to his romantic relationship.
He apologized once more when he entered this campaign, saying he had been convinced to run by two current county legislators, who he refused to name unless he won the primary.
Forté promises to continue a series of reforms at the sheriff’s office. He tweeted on Election Day that he has made mandatory for all deputies training in de-escalation techniques, effective communication, as well as classes on mental illness and intrinsic bias.
This story was originally published August 4, 2020 at 9:25 PM.
