Check back for San Joaquin County Sheriff race results
As of 10 p.m., incumbent Sheriff Steve Moore was behind, with 42 percent of the vote or14,840 ballots cast. Pat Withrow led with 57 percent of the vote or 20,011 ballots cast.
San Joaquin County Sheriff Steve Moore doesn't hesitate when asked what his best attribute is as a person.
"My best attribute is that no one will try harder to do this job than I do," said Moore.
Moore has served nearly 12 years as sheriff and 35 years overall in the department. He's running for a fourth term as the lead law enforcement chief for San Joaquin County.
"I have great experience in running the office. I've been very fiscally responsible with the budget," said Moore.
Moore points to getting the funding in place for a new jail for medium security inmates and says groundbreaking will happen later this year or the start of 2019. He is also proud of his Community Car Program, which assigns deputies to specific communities on a regular basis to build a rapport with people.
While Moore looks to garner his fourth term, he has been involved in controversy.
Last year, he was accused by the two forensic pathologists, including renown pathologist Dr. Bennet Omalu and Dr Susan Parson, of attempting to "control and influence our professional judgment and conclusions."
Both doctors resigned and Moore denies their claims saying he never made any changes to their findings. However, as coroner, he says he had a right to change the "manner of death."
"And on a few occasions we have made a different finding then is the opinion of the forensic pathologist," said Moore.
Following the controversy, the County Board of Supervisors voted to establish a separate medical examiners office.
Moore's challenger for the sheriff race is Pat Withrow who's running against Moore for a second time, having lost in the previous election.
"What separates me from the our current sheriff is, in the 12 years that he's been there, he's done nothing to gain that trust of the public and make sure we're being open and honest," said Withrow.
Withrow is a veteran of the San Joaquin County Sheriffs Office having served 28 years in uniform rising to the rank of sergeant. He says he became the sixth K-9 officer for the sheriffs office and took over training of the K-9 program for 12 years.
He was sergeant for the Lathrop Police program, which is contracted with the sheriff's office, where he says he was the first to initiate cameras in patrol cars for Lathrop only.
Withrow also ran the Alternative Work Program to get low level offenders out of custody to work at non-profits.
As a challenger, not surprisingly, Withrow is highly critical of Moore weighing in on that building a new jail is not the answer to keeping convicts from returning to custody. He believes more work programs are needed to give those arrested skills to get jobs.
"We need to give them training so they can try and turn their life around," said Withrow.
The primary is on June 5.
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