Sheriff's candidates face off last time before election starts

In the last major forum before early voting begins Saturday, the candidates for sheriff told Carson City Republican women on Tuesday they support a revitalized DARE drug-education program.

Answering four questions, Deputy Bob Guimont and Ken Furlong, a detective sergeant with the Department of Public Safety Investigations Division, didn't vary much in their responses.

Tuesday was the sixth time the men have met at a forum. The general election is Nov. 5.

Asked about Drug Abuse Resistance Education, or DARE, both men agreed the once-thriving program no longer in Carson City needs to be brought back.

"Carson City must have the DARE program," Furlong said. "If I can save one child in Carson City from being hooked on methamphetamine with DARE I believe that's a program worth having. We must go back to the DARE program."

Guimont agreed, taking the youth-intervention idea a step further.

"For high school kids I'd like to see a Scared Straight program," he said referring to a program in which youthful offenders are taken to a prison where inmates tell them what incarceration is like.

Guimont won favor with the audience when he suggested parents of children caught drinking at home should be cited or arrested for contributing to their delinquency.

A question about campaign contributions found Guimont responding to why he took money from a Carson City businessman charged in a 1997 assault and who later circulated a petition to charging Sheriff Rod Banister, several deputies and the District Attorney's Office of being in collusion.

"Ron Weddell came to me," Guimont said of Weddell's offer. After speaking with other deputies, Guimont said he decided to take the contribution with one admonition to Weddell, "The only thing you're going to get out of me is fair law enforcement across the board."

Guimont, a deputy with eight years on the department, has said if elected Lt. Bev Moltz, a 22-year-veteran of law enforcement, will be named as his undersheriff.

Furlong, who is a retired Air Force investigator, has not said whom he would appoint if elected, but has mentioned Nevada Division of Public Safety Lt. Steve Albertsen as a possible choice for undersheriff.