The day after the election, Prosecutor Ted Adams took a day off to spend with family. But the break didn’t last long; he has a jury trial to prepare for later this month.
“The election is over. Back to work,” he said.
Adams will serve as prosecutor for another four years after defeating Democrat challenger Greg Bowes by more than 2,000 votes.
“I’m excited. It’s nice to get the vote of confidence from the county, and that’s kind of how I view it, and I appreciate it. I’m excited to continue our work,” Adams said.
[sc:text-divider text-divider-title=”Story continues below gallery” ]Adams was first elected in 2014, becoming the first Republican prosecutor in 16 years. He moved his family here and his wife now teaches at the high school. “We love it here. We love raising our kids here … we just enjoy it and we’re very happy. I would just like to extend a big thank-you to everybody and tip my hat to my opponent,” he said.
Bowes has been working as a public defender in the county since June, but also has 33 years under his belt working civil and criminal cases.
“There was a person who commented after the League of Women Voters Forum that he thought that the county would be well-served if either one of us were elected. I actually agree with that,” Bowes said after the results were final on election night.
“I think (Adams) does a good job for the county, so congratulations to him for the win.”
Adams said he is happy to have Bowes in Brown County. “I work with him daily, or at least weekly. I’m happy to continue to work with him,” he said.
Adams said that when the two crossed paths on Election Day at a polling place, someone commented on how nice they were to each other. “I said, ‘Well, hey, we work together.’ This doesn’t have to be an ugly thing. It’s democracy,” he said.
Neither candidate ran a negative campaign, with Bowes focusing on how the county would tackle the opioid crisis and Adams running on his record as prosecutor so far, including a 100-percent conviction rate in jury trials.
In the next four years, the community can expect the prosecutor’s office to continue moving forward as it has for the last four.
“I think we’re on the right track. We are collecting record amounts of child support and we are winning every single jury trial we’re trying. We are filing more cases and keeping up with the work without increasing our budget or increasing our personnel. I like where we’re going,” Adams said.
He said he’s willing to work with new Judge Mary Wertz if she decides to pursue establishing a drug court as a way to continue combating the opioid crisis.
“I thought she did a very nice job of explaining the financial, fiscal side of it and how challenging that will be, but I’m happy to work with her if that’s a route she chooses to take,” Adams said.
When Adams ran in 2014, he was new to the community and spent a lot of time knocking on doors.
“This time around, I just took the approach of being who I was and continued to be seen as a community member, because we are in the community now,” he said.
“I enjoyed a lot of bipartisan support. Folks were actively reaching out to me to help and I can’t say thank-you enough to those folks, and they know who they are.”
Adams said he also wants to tip his hat to all of the candidates who ran in this general election.
“Prior to 2014, the first time I ran, I did not have any respect for politicians. I was kind of an anti-politician. I still kind of view myself as an anti-politician even though I am a politician now, but I am a reluctant one. I do have a lot more respect because I understand now the amount of hard work that goes into it and the amount of flack folks take just being around,” he said.
It takes courage for people to put themselves on the ballot, he said.
“The results, winners or losers, they did work hard,” he said.
“I have a great deal of respect for a lot of folks that do a very good job who didn’t win this time around. I’m certainly going to give them a letter of recommendation or reference if they need that. I feel like there was so much talent on the ballot this year, it’s going to be hard adjusting to that change, and I wish those folks well.”
[sc:pullout-title pullout-title=”How You Voted” ][sc:pullout-text-begin]
County prosecutor
Republican Ted Adams: 4644
Democrat Greg Bowes: 2453
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