Traverse City Record-Eagle

Election 2008

November 5, 2008

12:11 am: Sheriff ousted in Kalkaska

By ART BUKOWSKI

KALKASKA — Another of the region’s incumbent sheriffs has fallen.

David Israel, 60, ousted one-term incumbent Kalkaska County Sheriff William Artress by about 1,800 votes, both candidates said.

Israel is a detective sergeant with the Kalkaska County Sheriff’s Department, where he’s worked for 15 years.

“I feel real good about it,” he said. “I had a good team to work with. The time was right, people were ready for change.”

Artress wasn’t expecting such a wide margin. He lost 5,049 to 3,251, he said.

“I’m really surprised at the numbers,” he said. “But I’ve always said, what it is, is what it is.”

Incumbent Antrim County Sheriff Terry Johnson fell to Republican challenger Dan Bean in the August primary. Incumbent Grand Traverse Sheriff Scott Fewins was defeated by challenger Thomas Bensley in the primary election.

Kalkaska County Clerk Patricia Rodgers couldn’t confirm the vote totals for the race — or any other Kalkaska races — because of difficulties with machines in her office, she said. Programming and hardware companies who produced the election equipment were working remotely to fix the problems, she said.

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