Political races for county offices usually go widely ignored by the local public, but this year might be the exception.

There is a lively, colorful cam paign going on for Bristol County Sheriff that bears watching.

Sheriff Thomas Hodgson, a publici ty-friendly Republican, is being chal lenged by Fall River City Councilor Leo Pelletier, a sharp-tongue Democ rat.

Neither man is shy.

Hodgson has made waves as sher iff with his unorthodox methods. He started a chain gang, having inmates do community service work.

He charges inmates rent and levels fees against them for medical care and haircuts.

Hodgson, whose chief responsibili ty is to manage the two county jails, has inserted himself into areas like terrorism and community policing, areas his critics say he has no busi ness being in.

While his fans love his tough-talk ing ways, his critics consider him a shameless self-promoter.

Pelletier is hardly a shrinking vio let. He has unleashed a barrage of criticism toward Hodgson, saying he wastes taxpayer money on unneces sary items like a mobile command center, motorcycles and a boat.

`` I don't see water around the House of Corrections,'' he said.

Pelletier said he would save $100,000 by firing Hodgson's publicity staff.

Hodgson has had a number of court decisions go against him and has filed a number of appeals of those decisions. Pelletier likes to joke that if Hodgson loses the election he will try to appeal that decision too.

To make matters more interesting, Pelletier used to work for Hodgson. He was the `` chief steward'' at the jail. Hodgson dismisses him as a `` cook.''

Most people pay little attention to county government because it seems so invisible and irrelevant. This is especially so in the Attle boro area, which county officials overlook so often.

Norfolk County officials concen trate on the big-vote communities of Quincy and Brookline.

Bristol County is dominated by Fall River and New Bedford.

This year, however, voters in Attle boro, Seekonk, Rehoboth, Norton and Mansfield might want to watch the guys from the South Coast.

Getting a break

Sen. John Kerry just can't get a break in his attempts to get some traction in his race against President George Bush.

A series of hurricanes and other news events kept him off the front pages for weeks.

Finally, when Kerry gave what some consider his best speech on Iraq Monday and opened an aggressive campaign against Bush on the issue, he was quickly overshadowed by the CBS memo scandal.

Then he lost his voice because of a cold and had to cancel some key appearances.

Toward the end of the week Bush brought in interim Iraqi Prime Minis ter Ayad Allawi for some appearances in Washington.

And speaking of Allawi, how would Republicans react if a Democratic president brought in a foreign leader to make thinly veiled comments of political support for the president just weeks before an election?

Democrats, as usual, sat there and took it.

Disposable politics

A great American political tradi tion is dying, a victim of our throwaway society.

Political junkies have long collect ed lapel pins from election campaigns and candidates famous and obscure.

But, use of the pins is waning as most candidates now use paper, stickon labels that are immediately dis posed of after a political event.

JIM HAND covers politics for The Sun Chronicle. He can be reached at 508-2360399 or at jhand(at)(at)thesunchronicle.com. His column appears on Saturdays.