Candidate announces bid for county sheriff
01-21-2010 The Billings Gazette
Yellowstone County Sheriff’s Lt. Mike Linder announced his candidacy Thursday morning for sheriff.
Standing on the county courthouse lawn, Linder, a Republican, said the sheriff’s office needed a new direction and a new leader.
“The sheriff’s office has been pretty much status quo,” he said while flanked by about 20 supporters. “This office can be doing more.”
Sheriff Jay Bell hasn’t announced his plans, but has indicated in the past that he will run for the seat last won by the late Sheriff Chuck Maxwell, who died in June. After Maxwell’s death, the county commissioners appointed Bell to serve out Maxwell’s term, which ends this year.
Linder ran against Maxwell and lost in 2006. After that election, he was transferred to a fugitive task force, which he and some other deputies saw as punishment for running against Maxwell.
Several deputies joined Linder at his announcement, including deputies who currently have or have had legal dis-putes with the sheriff’s office.
Linder claims a clean record with the sheriff’s office, as well as experience on the SWAT team, the river rescue team, as a scuba diver and a firearms instructor. He has won two lifesaving awards during his career, and was the Optimist Clubs of Billings officer of the year in 1994.
“If you look at my record with this department, I believe it speaks for itself: not one negative personnel action against me since becoming involved with the Yellowstone County Sheriff’s Office 25 years ago,” Linder said.