Haywood sheriff Republican primary brings heated campaign
Bill Wilke, left, is squaring off against fellow Republican Mark Mease in the primary for the Haywood County Sheriff’s Office.
File photos
Few Primary races across the region have drawn the attention that the contest for Haywood County Sheriff has seen.
Squaring off for the position in the Republican Primary are incumbent Sheriff Bill Wilke, who has made reform a cornerstone of his first term in office, and Mark Mease, a former HCSO captain who promises to bring back a level of integrity and professionalism he said has been absent the last three-plus years.
Wilke is touting his record during his quest for a second term and in doing so isn’t bashful about criticizing the prior sheriff, Greg Christopher, under whom Mease served for much of his time as a deputy. Meanwhile, Mease has made an effort to defend Christopher’s legacy while also trying to prove to voters that he won’t live in the past, saying firmly that he’ll be his own sheriff with his own priorities to match the moment.
The winner of the March 3 Primary will go on to face Democrat Tyler Howell, currently with the Waynesville Police Department, in the November General Election.
Wilke first ran for sheriff in 2010 but lost to Democrat Bobby Suttles in the general election. However, after a tenure with the Asheville Police Department and a stint as a private investigator, in 2022, he again threw his hat in the ring once Christopher announced his retirement. After defeating Tony Cope, then the head of Christopher’s criminal investigative division, in the Primary, Wilke cruised through victory in the General Election.
Mease was born in Haywood County, where he said his family has lived for several generations. After working for 15 years in various trades, he got a degree in criminal justice and was an EMT and fireman before going into law enforcement and serving 21 years at HCSO in a variety of capacities. He retired as a captain over patrol in January 2023 when Wilke took office and now works investigations for the Cherokee Indian Police Department.
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Sitting sheriffs aren’t always challenged in a Primary Election by a member of their own party. Mease said it’s not a matter of party; it’s a matter of him thinking he can do a better job serving the residents and visitors of his home county.
“I’ve been Republican my whole life … but the sheriff is for everybody,” Mease said. “They’re not just for the Republicans. It doesn’t matter what party you’re affiliated with, and I want everyone to know that I am here for everybody.”
Wilke considers the challenge to his incumbency to be more of a reflection of the desire among a certain contingent to revive the old status quo, a sort of good ol’ boys’ system that he said was far from a meritocracy his office has instituted; his notion of the “meritocracy” that drives his office has been challenged by Mease supporters in public and on social media. Wilke thinks his changing of the culture in the office has had a positive impact, one that’s been reflected in crime statistics and community feedback.
However, he has also come under scrutiny. Wilke and the sheriff’s office are facing a lawsuit tied to an incident that took place at a dump in Canton belonging to Two Banks Development, the company that purchased the former paper mill site. That suit claims that the sheriff’s office “chose to ignore” the plaintiffs’ rights after a truck driver was embroiled in a heated conflict with workers at the landfill and some contractors working nearby. While there has also been a countersuit filed that directly refutes many of the claims in the initial suit, the incident has brought a heap of unwanted attention on Wilke and his office.
In addition, some in law enforcement circles were initially taken aback by the sharp culture shift at the sheriff’s office, a culture shift that led to numerous deputies either being fired or leaving to work for other agencies. Many of these former Haywood deputies have become Mease’s most vocal supporters, including former HCSO detective Heath Justice, who now works as a for Western Carolina University Police and is Mease’s campaign manager. Mease considers that the turnover in the sheriff’s office is a key issue.
“I don’t have an exact number, but I can tell you, between detention and patrol, it’s probably 40 or 50 people that’s left,” Mease said. “Either they were either fired, they retired early or they resigned because of the atmosphere. And that’s very unheard of in law enforcement … most agencies around here are understaffed, and I think it’s the sheriff’s responsibility to figure out why people are leaving and work toward fixing that policy issue.”
Wilke said that many who back Mease also back previous sheriffs’ policies that he called more “left leaning.” Mease is a lifelong Republican, but Wilke believes that since he worked under three Democrat sheriffs that he would be sympathetic to some of those more progressive initiatives. All the same, like Mease, Wilke said that he approaches policy from a nonpolitical angle.
“If it’s good for people and it’s good for the county, I don’t care what you call it, we’re going to do it,” Wilke said.
Wilke’s specific issue with some policies, he said mentioning Christopher by name, is that his predecessor talked about putting money back into the general fund, which to him echoes the defund the police movement that became popular among progressives following the murder of George Floyd in Minneapolis but has now fallen out vogue among most mainstream politicians on both sides of the aisle. During the campaign, Wilke has touted that the office has spent money to provide body armor and other vital equipment to his deputies, something he claimed Christopher didn’t do.
“That, to me, is not an acceptable policy. It really lends itself to ‘defund,’” Wilke said.
Wilke noted that his policies are guided by a focus on his “vision” and “mission,” and he admitted that he can be blunt in conversations about that vision, something has created waves in the law enforcement community. He said he’s lost friends, many of whom are among those who left the office now vocally support Mease in the Primary. Mease said one thing he wants to focus on is the turnover rate. While Wilke said staffing in his office has stabilized and he now has just four vacancies, Mease supporters have highlighted the turnover. Mease said it plainly — a high turnover rate is indicative of a “lack of leadership.”
“I don’t mean to be that way,” Wilke said. “I mean to have a standard and say, ‘This is what we’re doing and why we’re doing it. You may not be used to be doing it this way, but trust me, it’ll pay off in the end.’ Unfortunately, there were people whose interests — self interests — were greater than the interest of protecting the reputation of the agency.”
“There are a lot of ‘good old boy politics’ that have existed for a long time,” he added. “There’s a lot of people very uncomfortable with the fact that I have dispensed with them. I have no time or patience for people that are here for selfish reasons. The reason you should be here is to help the people in this community first, and the people that really want to do that have come here, and that’s why my roster stabilized.”
Mease taken umbrage with those claims and said those who rose through the ranks at HCSO over the years under Christopher and prior sheriffs earned their promotions.
“I think that’s a disrespectful remark to the people that worked hard to get where they were,” Mease said.
With Christopher’s endorsement and public support of Mease comes the implication that Mease may run his office just like his former boss. For supporters of Mease, this can be seen as a good thing. Electing their candidate, they say, will bring the office back to something more like what it used to be. For those who support Wilke, it’s a point of criticism. To them, electing Mease would be going in a backward direction, back to a good ol’ boys’ system that prioritizes falling in line over integrity.
While Mease said he respects Christopher, was happy to serve under him and is honored by his endorsement, he wants to be his own sheriff.
“I am my own person,” Mease said. “I’ve worked for three sheriffs. I worked for Tom Alexander, for Bobby Suttles and for Greg Christopher. I got something from each one of those, learned what to do and what not to do.”
“I feel like that, plus my experience working in Cherokee and with other agencies, allows me to be my own person,” he added.
Both candidates also highlighted transparency as a key issue. Wilke wants sheriff’s offices across the state to become more transparent and openly advocated for law enforcement personnel records in North Carolina to open to the public as they are in Florida. As a member of the legislative committee for the North Carolina Sheriff’s Association, he said he’s advocated on the state level for that change, a change he admitted isn’t popular among many sheriffs.
Mease said his work alongside multiple agencies has fostered strong relationships that could serve the office well. Critics of Wilke claim that his office has become too insular as he’s moved to dissolve certain partnerships, including the unified narcotics taskforce, which brought together several local agencies with the aim of curbing drug trafficking in the region.
“When bad times come, you can automatically know that you have a relationship with them, and we don’t have that relationship,” Mease said, adding that strong bonds with other first responders such as fire and emergency services also need improvement.
Both Wilke and Mease admitted that they haven’t enjoyed the perilous campaign process that has become so heated, particularly among the candidates’ supporters on social media.
“It’s a shame that we’re at this point, and it’s a shame that we have to have a highly contested sheriff’s election with conflict over things that aren’t related to policy, but that’s not my choice,” Wilke said.
Wilke is a bit more used to campaigning, this being this third run for sheriff, but Mease is a political newcomer. While both seem to loathe elements of the campaign, they are partial to the in-person events that bring them face-to-face with voters. Both said they think that level of direct communication shouldn’t stop after the campaign.
