Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: TUESDAY, March 21, 1995 TAG: 9503210104
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: C-1 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: RICHARD FOSTER STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: LENGTH: Medium
On Jan. 1, Mike Brown, who lived in the same Botetourt County house for almost 20 years, rented an apartment in Montvale, a few miles east in Bedford County.
Twenty-five days later, he announced he was running for sheriff of Bedford County. The next day, he registered to vote there.
Brown's wife and family still are living in the house in Botetourt. And some people wonder whether he is, too.
Brown, who is expected to receive the Republican Party nomination in the sheriff's race, is an international law-enforcement consultant who has worked for the Justice Department and the CIA. He started his career as a deputy in the Bedford County Sheriff's Office.
The state attorney general's office, acting on a request from the Bedford County registrar, is expected to rule today on whether Brown is, in fact, a resident of Bedford and qualified to run for sheriff.
Reached several times by phone Monday afternoon at the house in Botetourt, Brown denied that he still is living there. He visits his family, he said, but he lives in Bedford County.
"I've never been in something like this, with people snipping at my back," Brown said. "We want to put this absolutely at rest. It's a non-issue."
He said he thought supporters of his opponent, Doug Maynard, could be fueling the stories. "They're trying to detract from what the real issues are: law enforcement."
According to state law, candidates for office must be registered to vote in Virginia for one year. They also must be registered to vote in the jurisdiction in which they're running when they file to run for office.
Brown says he meets all those qualifications. Even though he announced earlier, he filed his candidacy papers almost a month after he registered to vote in Bedford County.
But, when a person registers to vote in a locality, he swears an oath, under penalty of law, that the locality is his domicile, or primary residence, and he has no intention of moving from it.
Some question whether Brown meets that standard.
Maynard says he has received several phone calls from law enforcement officers in other jurisdictions who told him that Brown still was living in Botetourt.
However, Brown says he's qualified to vote and run for sheriff in Bedford County.
He's changed his driver's license to the Bedford County address, he has a Bedford County phone number, and according to the county commissioner of revenue's office, he's registered at least one vehicle there for tax purposes.
He's also planning to build a house in Montvale. And while he hasn't actually bought the land, he is waiting for it to be surveyed, he said. He plans to start building this summer, he said.
For now, he's renting the top floor of a house in Montvale. He said he spends his nights there. Asked where the house is, he said on Virginia 629. But when he was asked later to identify the house on a map, he corrected himself, saying he lives off Virginia 691.
Maynard, his opponent, said, "This has been brought to my attention by many other people. I don't know where he lives. I've really tried to stay out of it.
"I hope he's living in the county. I hope he's doing what he's supposed to be doing. But he's got to live with what he does and I've got to live with whatever I do.
"I'm going to run the cleanest campaign I can."
Gerry Walker, former chairwoman of the Bedford County Republican Party, said, Brown "is a Bedford boy. Even though he and his wife have lived in Botetourt, his heart's always been in Bedford."
Brown himself said, "I'm not an outsider. I've lived 3,000 yards into Botetourt County. That's how much of an outsider I've been."
Brown was the second candidate to announce in a race that is expected to get crowded. Maynard, an investigator in the Roanoke Public Defender's Office, announced his candidacy about a week before Brown.
Though The Bedford Bulletin recently announced that Bedford police officer Darryl Updike is the third candidate for sheriff, Updike said that's incorrect; he's only pondering a run.
Incumbent Sheriff Carl Wells, plagued by a prolonged battle with the Board of Supervisers over payroll funds he deposited into his personal banking account, has yet to say whether he will run.
And Capt. Ronnie Laughlin, a veteran of the Bedford County Sheriff's Office, may announce his candidacy soon.
Keywords:
POLITICS
Memo: ***CORRECTION***