By City Times staff

MARSHFIELD – Wood County’s new sheriff is Republican Shawn Becker. The 22-year veteran of the Sheriff’s Department defeated Democrat John Hiller of Marshfield 19,159 to 13,445.

“We are obviously very happy with the results and all of the hard work paid off,” Becker said. “Hitting doors and just talking to people and making events, it all worked out.

“It’s just going out and going door-to-door, and people getting the opportunity to meet their candidates. I think that was a huge part of our campaign, and then the other part was also staying positive throughout the whole campaign from the moment that we announced that we were going to be running for sheriff. We vowed to run a positive campaign and stick with that, stick with what our qualifications were to have the positions, and then stick with the issues that we’re facing here in the community. And, that was, I think, something that we got a lot of good feedback on that we did.”

Becker says the current jail issue is his top priority moving forward. He also wants to address mental health issues.

Becker started with the Sheriff’s Department in 1997 as a patrol deputy. He worked his way up to patrol sergeant, and then investigative sergeant, followed by patrol lieutenant, and eventually landed in his current role as patrol captain.