WOODSTOCK — Ludlow police officer Ryan Palmer handily defeated longtime Windsor County Sheriff Mike Chamberlain to become the next county sheriff, winning the race by a wide margin in which the challenger spent heavily his own money to unseat the incumbent with a message for change.
Windsor resident and Selectboard Chairman Palmer, 36 and running as a Democrat, received 15,629 votes, or 57.12%, compared to Chamberlain’s 9,824 votes, or 35.90%, according to preliminary results from the Vermont Secretary of State’s office.
Chamberlain, 74, was first elected Windsor County sheriff in 1978 and served for 16 years, after which he took a few years away before returning and winning reelection in 1998. He had not faced a challenger since 2003.
In a statement of concession, Chamberlain, a Woodstock resident, called his defeat nonetheless a “win for me personally. I get to slow down and spend time with my family” and noted he is “looking forward to a change in my daily focus.”
In the previous sheriff’s race four years ago, Chamberlain won 99.2% of the vote in the general election, receiving 20,720 votes in 2018 compared to 14,881 in 2014 and 18,398 in 2010.
During the primary in August, Palmer — who by that time had spent $25,000 of his own money on advertising — faced off against Thomas Battista, a 20-year deputy in the Windsor County sheriff’s department. Palmer received 4,366 votes, or 44.2%, compared with Battista, 56, of Springfield, Vt., who received 2,963 votes, or 29.9%.
Contact John Lippman at jlippman@vnews.com.