Gabriel Frase brings insider perspective to Lewis County sheriff race

A surprise candidate for Lewis County sheriff, Gabriel Frase believes he is the best candidate for the job, even if his campaign is getting off the ground a bit later than his competitors.

With little notice, Frase, who is currently the Lewis County Sheriff's Office (LCSO) special services chief, registered for the ballot early last month during candidate filing week.

The filing came as a surprise to many in a race with relatively well-known candidates.

At the last minute, Frase joined the race to replace retiring Sheriff Rob Snaza while former candidate Kenneth Cheeseman chose not to file after all.

In an interview with The Chronicle, Frase said he decided to file after deciding he wasn't satisfied with any of the other candidates who had already been campaigning.

He said he decided then that he wanted to be "part of the solution."

"In my opinion, none of these candidates are the right fit for the sheriff's office," Frase said. "I actually have better qualifications, and I'm more level-headed and have a lot more knowledge of the agency that would be beneficial to the agency."

Despite candidate filing happening in May, just a few months before the August primary election, candidates have already been campaigning for months, with some starting as early as last fall - roughly a year ahead of the 2026 general election.

Frase is now the newcomer and, whether he likes it or not, he also represents something significantly different from the other candidates: He is a current member of the Lewis County Sheriff's Office administration.

Frase is one of three chiefs in the county's highest law enforcement office, making him part of the old guard.

Candidate Danny Riordan is also currently employed as a deputy with the Lewis County Sheriff's Office, serving outside of the core administration.

Frase is in some ways more deeply connected to the sheriff's office than some may realize.

He recalls growing up in Onalaska as the son of a sheriff's deputy and getting to know many of the 1980s deputies at holiday parties and barbecues.

He joined the Lewis County Sheriff's Office at a relatively young age and has worked there for roughly 24 years. He was hired by former Sheriff John McCroskey.

Frase served four years in the United States Marine Corps immediately after graduating from the now-closed Napavine Christian School. After his service. he returned to Lewis County and joined the sheriff's office as a deputy in 2002.

Since then, he has worked his way up the ranks, serving as a detective, a patrol sergeant, a detective sergeant and an administrative sergeant before being promoted to his role as special services chief in 2024.

In that role, he manages the civil side of the sheriff's office and also oversees the office's detective sergeant and its community service officers, which handle duties such as prisoner transport and animal control.

According to Frase, his approach to the next job, Lewis County sheriff, will be to improve on an already "good foundation" at the sheriff's office that he believes has been constructed over the years stretching back to the era of McCroskey.

When asked about his platform, Frase took a careful approach, describing himself as supportive of the Lewis County Sheriff's Office and current Sheriff Rob Snaza.

"I support the sheriff and what he is doing," Frase said. "I'm not here to publicly disagree with things that the current sheriff is doing."

Frase said he believes the sheriff's office is, in many places, operating as it should be, but he adds there is still room for improvement and areas that need change.

Frase sees the three biggest challenges for the sheriff's office as the budget, transparency and relationships across agencies and jurisdictions.

The budget has long been an issue for the Lewis County Sheriff's Office, same as many other local law enforcement agencies in the county, region and state. Lewis County supplements the Lewis County Sheriff's Office budget with money from a fund intended to maintain and repair its roads, a transfer Snaza once again defended in person during the county's most recent budget process in the fall of 2025.

Concerning relationships, Frase said some need to be maintained while others need to be rebuilt. In his opinion, the office has a good relationship with many other sheriff's offices in the region and surrounding counties.

At the same time, he admits that relationships with local agencies need to be rebuilt. Frase referred to the breakdown of the regional SWAT team as well as the sheriff's office's departure from regional Joint Narcotics Enforcement Team (JNET) operations, which he said were before his time in the LCSO administration.

Discussing those relationships, he said he expects fault for the breakdown likely lies in part on all sides. He worries it was the egos of command and administration that caused the breakdown rather than the actual relationships between the officers doing the work.

"On the line level, so like between deputies and officers, patrol deputies and patrol officers, I don't think that there's been a breakdown," Frase said.

He also admitted the office's relationship with the public needs work, whether it's with local media or victims and their families. Frase believes previous failures to communicate by the sheriff's office have come from an abundance of caution.

The office, he said, has avoided putting out information due to concerns that it could compromise an investigation.

Frase still carries concerns about the security of that information, but said he believes the office needs to find a better balance in communication, balancing sensitive information with the right of the public, and especially victims and families, to know what is going on.

"I believe that we could have definitely done a better job," Frase said.

Frase recently made an appearance at a Lewis County Republicans meeting and is expected to attend the upcoming Adna Sheriff's Q&A hosted by Adna Grocery and The Chronicle on Thursday, June 11.

For more information on Frase and his campaign visit https://tinyurl.com/3e9bfaz6.

Along with Frase and Riordan, former Centralia Police Department Sgt. Tracy Murphy and Chehalis Deputy Police Chief Matt McKnight are also running campaigns for sheriff. Find more information about their campaigns in previous Chronicle coverage available at www.chronline.com.

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