The coroner’s race between incumbent Republican Kevin M. O’Rourke and Democrat Dr. Elwyn C. Clark is the only countywide contest in Cattaraugus County in Tuesday’s elections.
In the other two countywide elections, District Attorney Lori P. Rieman and Sheriff Timothy S. Whitcomb are both unopposed in their bids for re-election to a third four-year term.
Clark, medical director of the Olean General Hospital intensive care unit, is the first doctor to run for coroner in the county in more than 25 years. He is also running on the Conservative Party line.
O’Rourke, funeral director at O’Rourke & O’Rourke Inc. of Salamanca, has been serving as coroner since 1994. He lives in Ellicottville and is also running on the Independence Party line.
A major in the Army Reserves, Clark served in Iraq. In 2010, Clark served the U.S. Army Reserves Medical Corps in support of Operation Iraqi Freedom/Operation New Dawn. He was the chief of Emergency Medicine and then-chief of Clinical Services/ Medical Commanding Officer of the 256th Combat Support Hospital in Al-Assad, Iraq.
He attended college at St. John Fisher College in Rochester, the University of New York at Buffalo and Touro University College of Osteopathic Medicine in Vallejo, Calif.
After deployment Clark received additional training in Critical Care Medicine at St. Luke’s Hospital in Bethlehem, Pa. and as a fellow in Trauma and Critical Care Medicine. It was this training that eventually brought Clark back to Western New York in 2012 as medical director of ICU at Olean General Hospital.
O’Rourke, a graduate of Niagara University, Class of 1981, received a bachelor degree in business administration and marketing, and received an applied science degree in mortuary science in Syracuse in 1982. He has been a nationally certified and state licensed funeral director since 1983.
“It is also essential that this office effectively works with police, fire, and EMS personnel who are vital to public safety,” O’Rourke said. “My tenure as coroner as well as my practical experience as a funeral director enables me to carry out this position in a professional manner, with the ability to effectively deal with families during the most difficult and emotional time.”
Rieman, a Republican who was was first elected district attorney in November 2009, is also running on the Conservative and Independence Party lines.
She defeated incumbent Edward Sharkey, her former boss, in that election 8,748 to 5,360. Rieman was on the Republican line only, while Sharkey had the Democrat, Conservative and Independence Party lines.
In 2013, Rieman ran unopposed on the Republican, Conservative and Independence lines, garnering 10,005 votes.
In an interview Friday, Rieman said she was seeking re-election because as “part of the community, I want to do what I can to keep it safe. Every day offers a new challenge.”
The district attorney prosecutes more drug crimes than anything else. “The opioid epidemic is pervasive,” she added There’s also more of a threat to police officers than in the past, she said and sexual assault reports are increasing.
“Every year our numbers go up for everything,” Rieman said.
While drugs are the biggest challenge law enforcement and prosecutors face in Cattaraugus County, the use of social media by predators to lure kids and intimidate witnesses is also on the rise, the district attorney said.
“We have to try to stay ahead of this technology,” Rieman said. While law enforcement can help educate young people to protect themselves in the age of social media, she said parents need to be aware of what their children have on their phones.
First elected sheriff in November 2009, Whitcomb was unopposed on the Democrat, Republican, Conservative and Independence Party lines where he received a total of 12,747 votes. In his 2013 re-election bid, Whitcomb was again unopposed on the Democrat, Republican, Conservative and Independence Party lines where he received 11,352 votes.
Whitcomb told the Olean Times Herald that of his 28 years in law enforcement, 27 have been with the Sheriff’s Department. He served 19 years with the department before being elected sheriff.
“For the last eight years, I have been blessed to be sheriff and oversee the department that has been so good to me,” he said. “It is a law enforcement family that I am fiercely protective of.”
Whitcomb said, “We continue to upgrade with any item of innovation in modern policing to help us protect and serve and to protect and serve the deputies. During the last eight years, we have acquired tasers, defibrillators, Narcan and body cameras.”
He added: “In an ever-changing world in criminology and policing, we try to stay on the upper edge of it all.”
(Contact reporter Rick Miller at rmiller@oleantimesherald.com. Follow him on Twitter, @RMillerOTH)
