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Leo Dutton Leading Lewis and Clark County Sheriff Race

By KFBB News Team

Story Created: Nov 2, 2010 at 11:14 PM MDT

Story Updated: Nov 2, 2010 at 11:20 PM MDT

Early absentee results showed Incumbent Democratic Candidate, Leo Dutton in the lead over Republican challenger Scott Swingley.

As of 11:08 PM Dutton is in the lead with 13,715 votes, making up over 66% of the votes. Swingley trails with almost 33% of the votes, with 7,026 votes.

All 56 precincts are reporting in, but are not fully counted, making Dutton’s lead promising, but still not official.

Dutton has been with the Lewis and Clark County Sheriff’s Office since 1984, starting out as a reserve deputy and working his way up to sheriff in 2008.

Swingley currently owns his own private investigation and security company and served as a Montana Highway Patrol Trooper for 15 years, he says that his experience as a trooper would bring a new perspective to the position.

One of the challenges of being Lewis and Clark County Sheriff is maintaining an $8.4 million dollar budget while leading 41 deputies, 22 detention officers and an administration staff of seven.

At a viewing party, when absentee votes were first made available, News Channel 5’s Kacey Drescher met with Dutton and a celebratory crowd of family and friends. When asked what his reaction was to leading with the majority of votes, Dutton says “very happy, I am thankful for the voters of this county, I am thankful for my campaign staff, my staff at the office, we came through as a team. We started as a team and we ended at a team, I’m very thankful and very honored to have the votes and I hope it continues.”

News Channel 5 will have official results as information is made available.

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