New Sheriff in Town

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A big man with the broad-shouldered build of a former EMU football player, Clayton lost the weight working overtime: from January through April, he and his top aides worked seven days a week. His team is now taking weekends off, but the sheriff is still putting in six days and three or four nights a week.

He lost the goatee because he finally took time off before Memorial Day to get fitted for his sheriff's uniform--and the department's regulations are strict about facial hair on uniformed officers.

Clayton started in the sheriff's department as a part-time corrections officer in 1981 and rose to first lieutenant before retiring in 2006. Just a year ago, few thought that he would ever wear the uniform again. The father of three was very much the underdog in last August's Democratic primary.

The incumbent, Dan Minzey, had defeated Republican Ron Schebil in 2000 and had been re-elected unopposed four years later. Though he'd angered county leaders with his budget overruns--in the red by an average of $1 million a year, mostly because of overtime pay--Minzey had made friends in the townships his deputies patrolled, as well as among the deputies themselves.