Nick Rauser Elected County Sheriff
 | Author:
Nancy Marks
Nancy Marks: MT43 News Secretary and News Editor |
Nick Rauser, a veteran law-enforcement officer, soundly defeated Josh Peters Tuesday in their race for Broadwater County sheriff-coroner. Rauser will succeed Wynn Meehan who did not seek re-election.
Rauser collected 2,546 votes to 638 for Peters, a victory for Rauser of 80-20 percent with all precincts counted.
Rauser, a Townsend native, has been a captain on the Broadwater County sheriff’s force since he was promoted to that rank in December of 2019. He started out as a deputy in in 2017, moved up to patrol sergeant in 2018 and was named a detective later that year. He holds various law-enforcement training certificates, including one for coroner. He previously worked for the sheriffs’ offices in Meagher and Jefferson counties.
Peters, a Townsend businessman and automotive shop owner, had no law enforcement experience.
Rauser said that if elected, he hoped to extend more law-enforcement services to the rapidly growing populations in both the north and south ends of the county. “We need to find solutions to providing deputies to those ends of the county,” he said. He also wants “to find solutions to keeping a healthy work environment in the sheriff’s office and work on retention” of employees. “When one or two employees quit, it makes it very hard to focus on these issues,” he said.
In addition, Rauser said he would like to start the “lunch with a cop” program to promote good relationships with school kids. He said it had given him pleasure recently to assist with coaching junior high football and last spring coaching T-ball.
“I would like to thank everyone for the support this last year. It has been truly humbling,” Rauser said in a statement Tuesday. “Thank you to my wife Chelsea, family, friends, employees, and the community for all the support.”
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