Undersheriff Doug Gillespie attends the NASCAR races every year the old-fashioned way: He buys tickets. Yes, he actually pays for them. Sadly, in today's political arena, it's worth noting when a politician pays.

Sheriff Bill Young's chosen successor started teaching ethics in the police academy in 1987 and still co-teaches a class on ethics and off-duty behavior. His message to the new police officers is that if they take comped meals or half-price meals or even free coffee at Starbucks, it comes with strings. "My philosophy is that it's not free. In many cases there may be something attached."

So Gillespie says he and his wife, Louise, a freelance graphic artist, don't accept free tickets to concerts or shows or boxing matches. (Gillespie recalled going once with Young to the Las Vegas Speedway to talk to the owner during a race, but it wasn't a NASCAR race.)

However, in his financial disclosure, Gillespie reported accepting $6,664 worth of airline tickets from Las Vegas attorney and 15-year friend George Kelesis. Gillespie called the airline tickets "an overboard Christmas gift."

Meeting Gillespie for the first time Tuesday, I came away after a 90-minute interview with the impression that he is a decent person, a cautious person who loves his job, doesn't live beyond his means and would not be seduced by the power of the job of sheriff.

His values were formed in LaGrange, N.Y., a tiny town just outside Poughkeepsie. He'd always wanted to be a police officer. He graduated from the Rochester Institute of Technology with a bachelor's of science in criminal justice in 1980.

Before graduating, he heard Las Vegas police were hiring, so on his spring break he came here with a pal and they both took the tests. In October of 1980, both were offered jobs. "I jumped in his car with a suitcase and a few dollars in my pocket, and arrived in Las Vegas. It was real risky. I knew no one," Gillespie said.

When Gillespie was at the policy academy, Bill Conger was a training officer there. Conger and Gillespie are considered the candidates most likely to win the primary in August and advance to the general in November.

Gillespie began as a patrol officer, then was a field training officer and then got his dream job as a SWAT officer, a job he didn't hold long before a knee injury in 1986 changed his professional direction. After a fall from a ladder injured the knee again, Gillespie realized he wouldn't be able to do as much of the physical work demanded of some of the police assignments. "I committed myself to getting promoted," he said.

He focused on learning more about leadership skills and found that he enjoyed management. In 1988, he made sergeant, by 1995 he was a captain, by 2000 he was a commander, and in 2002 he was deputy chief over Detention Services.

He used one word repeatedly during the interview to describe himself: collaborator. Young asked Gillespie to be his undersheriff after he was elected sheriff 3 1/2 years ago, and their relationship has been a collaboration, with Gillespie running the day-to-day operations.

While Young stressed that a vote for Gillespie would be a continuation of Metro's current course, Gillespie said continuity doesn't mean he's a cookie-cutter copy of Young. "Bill shoots a lot from the hip, and I'm more a collaborator," Gillespie said. "I study, I ask questions, I get input."

Gillespie described himself as a cautious man. "I calculate the risks I take in my personal life as well as I do in my professional life." He lives in a house he bought for about $130,000 in 1989. When he made captain, he bought a boat. When he made commander, he bought a used fifth-wheeler.

Gillespie isn't one to exaggerate. Asked how much he has raised for a race that he believes will take $1.5 million to win, he said he had $60,000 in the bank. His campaign team members will cringe when they see that in print because it's not enough to scare other candidates.

But Gillespie didn't hedge or dodge questions or puff it up by mentioning money promised. That's almost as ethical as buying his own NASCAR tickets.

Jane Ann Morrison's column appears Monday, Thursday and Saturday. E-mail her at Jane@reviewjournal.com or call 383-0275.