Chattanooga's Rape, Robbery, Assault, Burglary, Theft, and Auto Theft rates

I found a link to this site in a Dawn Treader post a few months back.

Five minutes after doing some city comparisons and seeing how Chattanooga compared nationally I decided that Chattanooga needed a new sheriff with fresh ideas. That said, Leslie and I decided not to vote for Sheriff Cupp in his bid for reelection.

If you follow this link and compare Chattanooga's Rape, Robbery, Assault, Burglary, Theft, and Auto Theft rates to cities in our area you will see that ole' Chattavegas has a problem on its hands. I hope our new Sheriff has some good ideas.

I guess I should have maybe asked this question before deciding not to vote down party lines but: Can someone explain to me why the sheriff race is tied to a political party? Of all the publicly elected officials the position of sheriff does not seem to have anything to do with a political party. It has always seemed ridiculous to me when I see an elephant or donkey on a sheriff campaigning sign. Anybody got a good explanation?