Nygren leans on experience factor in contentious McHenry Co. sheriff race

In the weeks leading up to his first election challenge in more than a decade, McHenry County Sheriff Keith Nygren is pinning some of his hopes on just two words: Experience counts.

The phrase adorns billboards touting the Republican sheriff's re-election bid, and if it resonates with GOP primary voters Feb. 2, Nygren probably would face Democrat Mike Mahon of Lake in the Hills, an administrator in the Cook County Sheriff's Department, in the November election.

Nygren, 63, of Hebron, is touting his 42-year law enforcement career as primary day nears not only to highlight his own credentials, but to indirectly shine a light on those of his Republican primary opponent, Zane Seipler.

Seipler, of Woodstock, has only eight years of law enforcement experience, four of them as a corrections officer in Cook County and four more as a patrol deputy under Nygren.

By his own admission, Seipler, 36, has never held a supervisory position or prepared a budget.

"If you put someone with no experience in charge of a department with 425 personnel, you're going to be in serious trouble," Nygren said this week when he and Seipler met with the Daily Herald editorial board.

Nygren said his long career, in which he's worked his way through the ranks from a patrol officer to a detective, to a sergeant, deputy chief, chief, and finally, sheriff, has taught him things about law enforcement and running a department that his opponent cannot know.

"In three years and eight months, which is the amount of time (Seipler) worked as a patrol deputy, you're just beginning to learn," Nygren said. "That's not a criticism, that's a fact."

Seipler, however, says the experience gap is overstated. He notes that in his eight years as a law enforcement officer he's spent time performing almost every function of a sheriff's department - from patrolling roads to patrolling cell blocks, from serving warrants to serving on an elite SWAT team.

"I don't think age matters," he said. "What matters is (knowing) right from wrong."

Seipler said he will overcome his lack of experience by surrounding himself with good people and being accessible, approachable and in the office, points on which he sharply criticized Nygren.

"He's not around. We need to have a sheriff that's here," Seipler said of his former boss, who he's labeled a "cell-phone sheriff" because he owns and travels to vacation properties out of state.

Nygren called the accusation "absurd," saying his employees and the public can always reach him.

"I interact with everyone on a daily basis," he said. "I never close my briefcase and go home. I'm on duty 24/7."

Those kinds of exchanges highlight an animosity between the two men that dates back to well before Seipler announced his campaign.

The sheriff fired Seipler last year after an investigation found he twice had let men who were driving without licenses swap seats with female passengers, then issued the women traffic citations. Nygren called the actions reckless and irresponsible. Seipler said he was using his discretion to give a pair of young drivers a break.

In October, an arbitrator rescinded Seipler's dismissal and said he should be allowed back on the force after a suspension. Nygren said he plans to fight any reinstatement.