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Dave White, 54, has been chief deputy for five years and plans to run on the Democratic ticket. White is the first Democrat to announce his candidacy for the sheriff’s position.

Sheriff Greg Orr has announced that he will not run for re-election.

White has spent 26 years in law enforcement, with 15 at the Muscatine County Sheriff’s Office.

“Public Safety has always been a lifelong commitment. I began working as a lifeguard when I was 16. While attending the University of Iowa, I took scuba lessons and immediately got involved in search and rescue diving and I am still regularly involved in area water emergencies,” White said.

White is also an instructor in swift water rescue and ice rescue and has assisted in training more than 500 public safety officers statewide in handling water emergencies.

White started his law enforcement career while a student at the University of Iowa, working as a patrol officer for the campus police department.

In addition to his law enforcement duties, White served as a volunteer firefighter in Conesville for 19 years and for six years at Columbus Junction; 10 of those years were as fire chief in Columbus Junction.

He spent 29 years as a first responder and EMT and a member of the Ambulance Service Board.

“I feel the sheriff is a coordinator for emergency response in the county. I have the utmost respect for those volunteers who drop everything at any moment to come to the aid of their community.

I look forward to continuing the relationships I have developed with the other emergency services over the years,” White said

If elected, White said he would work to keep spending  under control in the patrol division.

“Even though fuel costs have more than tripled in the last five years, we have been able to keep the overall patrol budget at nearly the same level.” White said.

He added that the department has used grants to keep equipment up-to-date and taken advantage of free training opportunities to help keep costs down.

His main priority, he said, would be adding more bed space to the Muscatine County Jail without increasing taxes. He will examine the pros and cons of adding a new pod to the jail or implementing a new work release facility to replace the existing one that is outdated.

White has utilized minimum security inmates in the county parks for tree planting and other special projects in the off-season. He would like to expand the chain gang (a minimum security prisoner work crew) to clean up county road ditches and wildlife areas.

He would also install a video conferencing system between the jail and the courthouse so that most prisoners would not need to be transported for their initial appearance. This would free up city police officers as well as jail staff.

White currently serves as vice president of the Midwest Regional Water Safety Council and on the Board of Directors of the Muscatine Search and Rescue Unit.

He has previously held the elected offices as a Columbus Junction City Council member and Township Fire Board Trustee for the Conesville Benefitted Fire District.

He also served for many years on the E911 Service Board and the Muscatine County Emergency Management Board.

In his spare time, he enjoys flying, fishing, hunting and camping.

He is a member of the National Rifle Association, Experimental Aircraft Association, and the Aircraft Owners and Pilots Association.

White has been married to his wife, Linda, for 29 years. They have two sons and two grandchildren.