N.C.'s First Female Sheriff Is in a Primary Battle

As battles for sheriff tend to go in North Carolina, Watauga's current conniption fit doesn't hold a candle to the gale-force winds blowing in other counties.

In Ashe County, there's a convicted felon on the Republican primary ballot. He served time for jury tampering and solliciting perjury. Or for comparison sake, try out the Davidson County sheriff's office, which has too thick a dossier to wade into today, but the most recent scandal is part of a pattern. In Surry County, eight candidates are running, three Democrats and five Republicans. We're almost positive that every one of them is behaving like a perfect gentleman.

In Lincoln County, the state's first-ever female sheriff, Barbara Pickens (who's been sheriff there for 11 years, for Pete's sake!), is in a primary with a fellow Republican, a man. The incumbent Pickens (they call her "Slim") wants to put a sheriff's station in the local Wal-Mart Supercenter, but we haven't actually heard that her opponent is making an issue of her favoritism for Wal-Mart, as opposed to, say, Target, which (you've got to admit) makes more logical sense.