Sheriff Holder Changes Methods: No More Campaign Signs from Sheriff's Office

(New Braunfels, TX) -- Comal County Sheriff Bob Holder says he’s changing the way he distributes signs for his reelection campaign after allegations surfaced at the end of last week that he had been inappropriately using the county sheriff’s office to hand our campaign materials.

The allegations first surfaced in a series of emails to local and regional media, and were highlighted by a hidden-camera story on KSAT 12 in San Antonio on Friday. We talked with Sheriff Holder, who is in his 16th year as Comal County Sheriff, about those allegations, and he says he felt initially that he was doing nothing wrong, since the Sheriff’s Office is his place of employment, and the place he is most accessible to the public. He made it clear that he felt he was not using the county-owned building as a campaign headquarters, but rather as a convenient spot for residents to find him to get signs and other campaign materials for his reelection bid.

But Holder says, although he feels he hasn’t done anything wrong, he is changing his methods to make it clear that he is running an above the board reelection campaign, and he tells KGNB that he is no longer making those campaign materials available at the Sheriff’s Office. Instead, he says he has a network of volunteers throughout the county that will deliver those signs, when asked. To hear some of Sheriff Holder’s comments, click the Audio Clip link below.

Now in his 4th term in office, Sheriff Holder has only had to fight one contested election, and that was the first time he ran for Comal County Sheriff in 1997. Holder says that although the controversy over the campaign signs may have been a stumble in his reelection bid, he doesn’t feel it will have a negative effect on his overall campaign for a 5th term in office.

Holder, a 67-year old former Marine and DPS trooper, faces 13-year reserve deputy sheriff Joshua Dean (left) in the Texas Primary. Dean is currently the Director of Security for the San Antonio Water System and spent 6 years as a police officer for the Lower Colorado River Authority. The two will face each other in the Republican primary, which at this point looks like it will be held at the end of May, although a final decision has not yet been made. We’ll keep you posted.