Bradley County has a new lawman in town after what some considered Thursday a mild upset; at the stroke of midnight on Aug. 31, Republican Jim Ruth will take office as sheriff.

A Vietnam veteran whose campaign focused on experience and qualifications, Ruth upended Democrat opponent Steve Lawson by slightly more than 1,000 votes. The unofficial total reported Thursday night at the Courthouse Plaza showed Ruth with 9,506 votes compared to Lawson’s 8,471, for a 53 to 47 percent margin.

The Sheriff’s race results, as well as all Bradley County election finals, are unofficial until their certification by the Bradley County Election Commission.

“Victory is really sweet,” Ruth said from the steps of the Courthouse Plaza. “It relieved a lot of tension. It was a long, hard campaign — but it was worth it.”

Lawson, whose campaign team billed him as a conservative Democratic leader and who pledged sweeping changes in law enforcement, including courthouse security, did not visit with news reporters after the election as a large crowd assembled at the Plaza. Most candidates, winners and non-winners as well as many who were unopposed in their races, dropped by once election returns began to draw to a close.

“We stuck with our four-point platform — experience, integrity, vision and education,” Ruth said. “By and large, we always believed we would win.”

At least one random straw poll, taken prior to the local elections by a group billing itself as The Liars Club, showed voters favoring Lawson. In certain other local races, the poll was more accurate.

Featuring two current Sheriff’s Office employees who work for Tim Gobble — who did not seek re-election in order to focus on the U.S. House of Representatives race in the 3rd Congressional District — the Sheriff’s race quickly became one of the most heated political rivalries in recent years. Lawson and Ruth met face-to-face in a limited number of civic-sponsored forums, but most of their finger-pointing came in paid political advertising, both print and electronic.

Lawson’s campaign questioned the Republican’s performance while Ruth’s team took the Democrat to task for his self-proclaimed conservative attitudes, and the fact that he distanced himself from the Democratic administration in the White House.

Lawson’s campaign was also supported by a few past Bradley County sheriffs, both Republicans and Democrats.

The election night’s early returns showed Ruth taking a quick lead compliments of absentee and early voting in which Ruth garnered 5,688 votes to Lawson’s 4,776. The Lawson camp narrowed the lead as polling place reports flowed in, but by the time all 17 Bradley County precincts had been tallied Ruth’s lead had grown to more than 1,000.

In Election Day balloting, Ruth barely bested his Democratic rival by a 3,818 to 3,695 vote margin.

Ruth and his deputies will be sworn in Aug. 31 at the Bradley County Judicial Complex.

Bradley County Election Commission tabulations showed 18,563 voters cast ballots in the races. This includes more than 10,000 who voted early, as well as absentee ballots.

Local election officials feared heavy rain and thunderstorms could have impacted Thursday’s elections — as was reported in a few other sections of the state — but Bradley County Elections Administrator Fran Green and her election commissioners reported no problems at any of the local precincts. Heavy storms and lightning could have knocked out power at the polling places — as was the case in some areas of the county — but this did not occur as a major line of violent weather passed through late in the afternoon.