By KEVIN CHIRI
Tammany West news
COVINGTON – In five short years Randy Smith has gone from an everyday police officer with the St. Tammany Sheriff’s Office to pulling off what many consider to be one of the biggest upsets in St. Tammany election history.
Smith, currently the chief of police for Slidell, defeated 20-year incumbent St. Tammany Sheriff Jack Strain in the runoff election last Saturday night by pulling in 52 percent of the vote.
Smith received 36.616 votes to 33,659 for Strain.
The Slidell chief surprised many when he announced in January that he would challenge Strain for the job. The incumbent sheriff did have various news stories in the past two years that questioned several aspects of his department’s operation, but Strain never had any ethical or criminal charges against him in 20 years as sheriff.
(See SMITH, pg. 2A)
Nonetheless, Smith said it was those “questions” that helped him believe it was time to take on Strain.
“I always expected to run for sheriff, but I thought I would do it when Strain called it quits,” Smith said. “But after seeing some of the things that happened the past couple of years, I began to think the timing might be now.”
Smith said it was election night in December, 2014 when Warren Montgomery was elected the new 22nd Judicial Court District Attorney that he first began to seriously consider taking on Strain in the 2015 election.
“When Warren won I could tell that Strain did not have the support he previously did,” Smith said. “Strain had gotten behind Brian Trainor in a big way during that election, but Trainor still lost. It told me the people of St. Tammany were really watching what was happening and weren’t being fooled anymore—I knew the people were open to a change for sheriff too.”
Smith’s intuition proved to be correct as he finished a solid second in the primary election on Oct. 24, with Strain leading the way with 45 percent and Smith taking second with 37 percent in a four-candidate field. Then on Saturday night Smith finished off the momentum swing in his favor with the stunning victory.
Smith said he was not shocked by the victory because his time campaigning on the western side of St. Tammany gave him plenty of confidence about winning.
“I knew I had good support in the eastern side of the parish, but when I walked the streets on the western side and talked to people I really heard a lot of support for a change,” he said. “By Saturday night I felt very confident I was going to win.”
Smith said his victory revolved around several key points.
“Jack Strain has done a great job as sheriff in St. Tammany for most of his 20 years,” Smith said. “But I believe he became disconnected from the people and from his employees in recent years.
“I also know that many people were unhappy with the visibility of deputies patrolling our streets and I promised them I would change that and put more deputies on the streets,” he said. “Add to those problems the fact there was an anti-incumbency feeling in St. Tammany and I think those are the reasons the people voted for a change.”
Smith is a lifelong Slidell resident who attended Salmen High School, then went to LSU to obtain his Law Enforcement degree. He returned to Slidell and was hired with the Sheriff’s Office by Pat Canulette, beginning 24 years of working the streets as a deputy where he spent countless hours talking with the residents of the parish.
“I really know the people on both sides of this parish since I’ve worked every street there is,” he said. “The biggest complaint I heard in campaigning was not enough deputies on the streets, and the response times weren’t fast enough.”
Smith said he always dreamed big in his law enforcement career, remembering a time in his early years when he was asked about his long-term goals.
“I always had ambition to do something big in law enforcement,” he said. “When I was a road deputy we had to take a psyche test and I remember being asked where I saw myself in five years. I told the guy, ‘that’s easy, I’ll be the sheriff.” He told me he could see I had a lot of ambition, and that came when I was only 22 years old.”
Smith took on his first challenge five years ago when he decided to run for chief of police in Slidell. That election was also seen in a similar light as this one, with Smith a huge underdog to former Slidell Chief Ben Morris. However, he won that election by a three-to-two margin and then was re-elected a year ago with no opposition.
Smith said he received a call from Strain on election night when there were less than 10 precincts left to report, and he had a four percent lead.
“He congratulated me, told me I did a good job and that he wanted to work with me,” Smith said. “I told him I will take the department to the next level and that he did a good job for the people. I learned so much of what I know when I worked for him.”
Smith said another key to his victory was his wife, Adele, who supported his decision to run for chief, and then again to run for sheriff.
“She was never the one who convinced me to do any of this—it was always my decision,” he said. “I remember when I decided to run for chief. I just sat up in bed one morning about 4 a.m. and said, ‘It’s me. I need to run for chief.’
“But Adele has stood by me and helped so much in both of these elections,” he said. “She was a big reason we have been able to win.”
Smith officially takes over as sheriff on July 1 but said he will immediately begin putting together a transition team and expects to begin meeting with Strain after the first of the year.