It's speechmaking time in the Salt Lake County sheriff's race, which this season seems like the theater of the absurd.

Each week, Republican incumbent Aaron Kennard and GOP challenger Brent Cardall hit the senior centers, where they take turns dishing out their diatribes.

"My opponent has no experience, zero," the sheriff charges.

Kennard, counters Cardall, has lost the support of his deputies and lost interest in being the county's top cop. After all, the newcomer notes, why did he apply for Salt Lake City police chief?

Still, the faces tell far more than the words. Fake smiles turn to smirks, then frowns and furled brows. And, like mold, the screeds pile thicker and get nastier by the speech.

For Kennard, this is new. The sheriff has coasted to election four times and, during those 16 years, never faced a primary. Until now.

At the county convention an upstart energy swelled around Cardall - a 42-year-old West Jordan resident, who has spent most of his 20 years in public safety managing Adult Probation and Parole. Introduced by a cavalcade of hefty cops, the slight Cardall muscled out a manic, sometimes-shrill speech castigating Kennard.

Minutes later, delegates delivered a June 27 primary - with the winner advancing to face Democrat Jim Winder.

"It kind of re-energized me because I have always been the Republican nominee," Kennard says. "This young man surprised me."

The campaign, which Kennard now calls the ugliest and most personal of his career, has infused the 63-year-old sheriff with some fight.

"Cardall doesn't have a clue what is going on in the county. This is not the state prison," he barks.

And on experience: "He just doesn't cut it," Kennard says.

After a brief stint as an Orem cop, Cardall has been at the Department of Corrections for 20 years, where he worked up from guard to regional administrator. Overseeing 242 employees, 8,000 offenders and two day reporting centers qualifies him for the job, Cardall insists.

On the stump, Cardall blasts Kennard for the empty Oxbow Jail, insisting the sheriff ought to lease the South Salt Lake facility to the state.

"It's the most expensive Laundromat in our nation," he says.

Kennard has made regular runs at the County Council to reopen Oxbow, including an unsuccessful request last week to lease the space while letting his staff run it.

The reason for the Oxbow debate: space. Under council edict, jail beds at the Adult Detention Center have been cut from 2,000 to 1,850. County officials want to trim that number to 1,700 by sending more nonviolent inmates to Mayor Peter Corroon's Day Reporting Center, where they can work and receive drug treatment.

Kennard has been lukewarm on the plan, arguing for tougher sanctions should the inmates violate the terms of the diversion program. For that position, Cardall pounces, saying it is "unacceptable" to fund the center but not fill it.

The challenger also accuses the sheriff's office of not booking enough people in jail and therefore "losing out on hundreds of thousands of dollars" in state reimbursement.

"It's a two-bit argument," Kennard dismisses.

A former National Sheriffs' Association president, Kennard is quick to trot out a list of credentials piled up over four terms. Some of his favorites: task forces launched to handle gangs, narcotics, violent crime, even terrorism.

Even so, a looming overhaul - the county intends to reorganize the sheriff's office into a Unified Police District - provides fodder for Cardall to chop away at the incumbent.

"He's selling his officers down the river," Cardall alleges over a UPD format he says the sheriff is forcing. Kennard "doesn't believe in the sheriff's office. He's giving it away."

Kennard notes the UPD has been in the works for years and "now has the political will" of the elected leaders involved.

Under the plan, Riverton, Bluffdale, Herriman, Cottonwood Heights, Holladay and the unincorporated county would be folded into a single policing district with a new chief. In turn, the sheriff's office would concentrate on canyon patrol, search and rescue, court security and the jails.

"It is not a figment of my imagination," Kennard says. "There's plenty to do."

The question, Cardall pushes, is whether Kennard should do it. The sheriff's long tenure has deflated morale, he insists, and prevented new ideas.

Proof? Cardall points to the selection of new Salt Lake City Police Chief Chris Burbank.

"They chose somebody who has half the experience as our dear sheriff," Cardall tells seniors at a recent debate.

Kennard shrugs it off.

"I still have my wits about me to do a great job," he says. "You've got to have a sense of humor. What's serious is the life-and-death issues we deal with."

djensen@sltrib.com

Aaron Kennard

Residence: Cottonwood Heights

Age: 63

Education: Bachelor's degree in psychology/sociology from the University of Utah and a master's degree in public administration from Brigham Young University

Occupation: Salt Lake County sheriff since 1991

Brent Cardall

Residence: West Jordan

Age: 42

Education: Bachelor's degree in criminal justice from Columbia College and a master's degree in human resource management from Webster University

Occupation: Regional administrator, Department of Corrections, since 2001

On the issues

Unified Police District: Kennard supports; Cardall opposes.

Oxbow Jail: Kennard wants it open with sheriff's office staff; Cardall prefers the county lease the jail to the state.

Day Reporting Center: Kennard wants more study before releasing additional inmates from jail; Cardall wants to see the center filled.