Counting two surprise filings completed just hours before Wednesday’s filing deadline for Tulsa County Sheriff, there are now more candidates for this abbreviated sheriff’s term than there have been in the last 27 years combined.

Thirteen men — 10 Republicans, two Democrats, and one Independent — are seeking to replace acting Sheriff Rick Weigel, who replaced longtime Sheriff Stanley Glanz in October. Glanz’s resignation, which came after he was charged with two misdemeanor crimes in September following a grand jury investigation, ended a law enforcement career that spanned half a century.

A TCSO spokesman previously said Weigel would not run for this sheriff’s term, though he would not rule out a later candidacy.

The general election is set for April 5 and the term runs through Dec. 31, 2016. However the office would be up for grabs again in November 2016.

See a full list of all candidates, as well as all documents they’ve filed at the Tulsa County Election Board.

Counting Glanz, only nine candidates have filed to run for sheriff since 1988, an election that started Glanz’s career as sheriff.

In 1988, Glanz ran against Bill Lyons, a Republican, and Art Lee, the incumbent Democrat Sheriff.

Four years later, Glanz was the only Republican candidate; Keith Dotson and Mike Buckendorf Sr. ran as Democrats. Glanz ran unopposed in 1996, then faced off against Larry Bales and Charles Burton, both Republicans in 2000. Glanz defeated Dale Eberle, a Democrat, in the general election. Eberle himself had defeated Thomas Bouldin in the Democratic primary.

Tulsa County Sheriff's Office

The Tulsa County Sheriff’s Office. Frontier file

In 2004, 2008 and 2012, Glanz ran unopposed, though according to one current candidate, he almost faced a challenger.

Bill Reaves, who filed Wednesday afternoon to run for sheriff, is a former TCSO jail administrator, who said he was fired in 1990 after Glanz was first elected sheriff. Reaves, who said he achieved the rank of lieutenant before being fired “for no cause,” said a check snafu kept him from filing to oppose Glanz in 2012.

“I wrote the check wrong (candidates must pay a $200 fee to run for sheriff,)” Reaves, 66, told The Frontier on Wednesday. “I had to go home and by the time I got back to write the check correctly, it was 5:01 p.m. or whatever, and it was too late.”

Reaves, who said he ran “a spotless jail,” said he hoped he would win this shortened sheriff term but he didn’t know if he would run again.

“I mainly just want to see what they did to my jail,” Reaves said.

Also filing on Wednesday was Randy Pierce, a current Sergeant at TCSO assigned to court operations.

Of the 13 candidates, five could be considered relative surprises, having not previously publicly expressed interest in the sheriff’s race.

One of those “surprise candidates” is Arthur Jackson, who filed Tuesday. Jackson, a 73-year-old registered independent, is currently a detention officer at the Tulsa Jail, having worked there since 2001.

When he first started at the jail, it was run by Corrections Corporation of America. In 2005, CCA lost control of the jail to the sheriff’s office, who rebranded it as the David L. Moss Criminal Justice Center.

Jackson, who said his focus would also be on jail operations, said as the only black male supervisor on the jail, he is able to see the environment there through a different lens.

“We have a problem with use of force,” he said. “And I think that if we had more (black detention officers) there and more (Hispanic detention officers) as far as supervisory positions, we would have less use of force.”

While 13 candidates have filed, it’s unknown how many will make it to the March 1 primary election. A two-day contest period begins Thursday morning, which, theoretically, could end with some candidates being disqualified.

State law carries a number of regulations for who can run for sheriff, a position that comes with a salary of about $105,000 in Tulsa County.

Any contest of candidacy must be made by another candidate.