Little more than a year after McCurtain County Sheriff Kevin Clardy was caught with other county officials making threats and racist remarks, Bruce Shirey, 41, and Jason Ricketts, 52, are running against each other for the Republican nomination to replace him.
The three men faced off in the June 18 primary, where Shirey and Ricketts were propelled to the Aug. 27 runoff with 49.48 percent and 32.27 percent of the vote, respectively. Clardy was ousted after receiving just 18.26 percent of the 2,176 votes cast.
Clardy had made national news in April 2023 after the McCurtain Gazette-News, which has little online presence, secretly recorded the sheriff and other county officials talking about lynching Black people and killing reporters. Although many state leaders expressed outrage over the incident and called on Clardy to resign, he did not and ran for reelection. With his June loss, he is set to continue in his position until his replacement is selected with the Nov. 5 general election.
To that end, the Republican runoff between Shirey and Ricketts will take place Tuesday, Aug. 27. Polls will be open from 7 a.m. to 7 p.m. Early voting is available from 8 a.m. to 6 p.m. Thursday and Friday and from 8 a.m. to 6 p.m. Saturday. The runoff winner will face Democrat Steve McKee in the general election.
‘Definitely a systemic issue’
Anchoring the Choctaw Nation, McCurtain County is a largely wooded area known for its timber industry, scenic views and the burgeoning tourism industry that has exploded with the establishment of Hochatown as a vacation destination. The county’s population is about 31,000, and Idabel is its county seat.
Asked their motivations for seeking office, Shirey and Ricketts said they decided to run for the law enforcement position in the southeast corner of the state because Clardy’s comments brought national notoriety to the area and because of other local complaints about his leadership.
“It was just complete apathy,” Ricketts said of Clardy’s office. “(It was) definitely a systemic issue that was going on.”
Shirey said he thought it was time for a change in the county.
“I was tired of what was going on,” Shirey said. “There’s no reason why a sitting sheriff or any elected official should be talking about anything like that — and the deputies, too. It needs to be better than what it has been in the last few years. The people of this county deserve better than what they’ve had.”
Both Ricketts and Shirey have experience working in the Broken Bow Police Department and the McCurtain County Sheriff’s Office, although neither has done so in recent years. Shirey, who hails from the Holly Creek community outside of Broken Bow, began his career as a dispatcher in the sheriff’s office and eventually moved into deputy and lead investigator positions before spending 10 years as a park ranger in Beavers Bend State Park. He quit that post at the beginning of this year.
Ricketts, who said he also lives just outside of Broken Bow, worked in the McCurtain County Sheriff’s Office until seven years ago, when he stepped away to start an armed security business.
McCurtain County sheriff runoff candidates discuss new ideas
Both Ricketts and Shirey said they want to increase transparency and community outreach in order to move the sheriff’s office forward in the wake of Clardy’s controversial tenure.
Ricketts said the first thing he wants to do is form a citizens oversight committee for the sheriff’s office.
“This would be my first step: having a committee of people that will help me with the day-to-day operations,” Ricketts said. “Give them access to what we can give them access to and then (they would) report back to the people in McCurtain County. That way, you don’t have me as a sheriff saying, ‘Hey, we’re doing great.'”
Shirey also said he wants to increase transparency for the office, which he said needs improved relationships with citizens.
“We need better — what I would consider — customer service,” Shirey said. “People call the police needing help for some reason or another. They just don’t call just to talk.”
In a recent Facebook post, Ricketts also called for better responsiveness from the sheriff’s office for the people it serves.
Another issue Ricketts said he wanted to address if elected is the increasing tourism in McCurtain County, often brings tens of thousands of tourists to the area on weekends throughout the summer.
“Traffic in our county is a nightmare. Roads weren’t made to handle that,” Ricketts said. “So for first responders to get from point A to point B, a lot of times it is pretty difficult. What I want to do is set up [substations] throughout the county — offices for our officers to work out of.”
Shirey and Ricketts both said they want to improve relationships with young people in the area.
“There’s some other things that I’d like to get started — some community programs for the kids in schools, maybe some outreach programs for people from the community that are at risk,” Shirey said. “Get some programs started for them, and maybe you can get them headed down the right direction before they get off on the wrong direction.”
Ricketts said he wants to establish a justice center and reinstate partnerships with child advocacy centers.
“[It would be] not just the sheriff’s department anymore, but an actual justice center where we (would) have a sheriff’s department command structure and dispatchers and that kind of stuff up front,” Ricketts said. “But around the back, (we would) have separate entrances for victims to go into to get these other services that they need all underneath one roof.”
