CINCINNATI — Charmaine McGuffey defeated her old boss, Jim Neil, to earn another term as Hamilton County Sheriff. Both candidates in November's race have served in the role. Neil was first elected in 2012 and re-elected in 2016 but lost to McGuffey in the 2020 Democratic primary. She went on to win in November of that year.
Neil mounted a challenge this election cycle as a Republican but lost as McGuffey got 56% of the vote.
"We're not going to go back to a time where citizens weren't really clear if they were going to be treated fairly if they came in contact with the justice system," McGuffey told WCPO in October before the election.
Ohio’s third-largest county by a majority vote appears to have given McGuffey a mandate.
"I’m working and I’m working for everybody in Hamilton County," McGuffey said.
The sheriff told WCPO that in her second term, as in her first, she promises to enhance public safety holistically. McGuffey said she wants to focus on mental health and continue her recruitment push.
Right now, she said, the sheriff's office has 900 deputies. She wants to fill all 960 budgeted positions.
McGuffey also promised to maintain the department’s crime-fighting task forces — including a domestic violence task force and the sheriff's office’s youth violence task force. It all has an emphasis on integrity and transparency.
“We’re all going to follow the rules, and when people don’t follow the rules there will be a very fair and just accountability for those people and I will communicate it," McGuffey said. “There are so many people that come to sit at those tables — they’re Republicans, they’re Independents, they’re Democrats. We’re all working together.”
For the first time, McGuffey will be working with another Democrat in the prosecutor's office. Connie Pillich is the first democrat prosecutor in Hamilton County in 92 years after defeating incumbent Melissa Powers.
