Oct 23, 2008 10:04 pm US/Eastern
Campaign '08: Race To Be Broward's Sheriff
FORT LAUDERDALE (CBS4) ―
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Al Lamberti (left) and Scott Israel are the front runners in this year's race for Broward Sheriff.
CBS
For the first time in a decade voters in Broward County will not see Ken Jenne's name of the ballot for sheriff.
Jenne left the agency last year amid criminal charges and now two South Florida law enforcement veterans are vying to be the county's top cop. It's been nearly a year since Al Lamberti officially took over as Broward Sheriff. Lamberti says he's worked hard to distance himself from former sheriff Jenne and believes he's improved morale.
"It was a top down organization, I changed it," Lamberti told
CBS4 reporter Cary Codd. "I turned it upside down. I'm making it a bottom up organization because I feel the people closest to a problem are the people who have the answer to the problem.
Lamberti points to his 30 years with the Sheriff's Office. The Republican candidate says he's cut the agency's budget, given raises to deputies and put more deputies on the streets.
But Lamberti's opponent, Democrat Scott Israel, says more needs to be done. He says the department has a number of disgruntled employees who are upset about the way they are disciplined and tired of the status quo.
"I gained my experience on agencies not called the Broward Sheriff's Office so I will be able to bring the cultural change that agency is very, very much crying out for," said Israel.
Like Lamberti, Israel also has 30 years of law enforcement experience. He worked for the Fort Lauderdale Police Department. He was also the Police Chief of North Bay Village until he quit to run for sheriff.
Lamberti says being the chief of a small agency does not make Israel qualified to run one of the largest sheriff's offices in the country.
"The chief of a 26 man department with a 4 million dollar budget, the experience you gain is just not comparable to leading an agency with over 6-thousand employees and a 700 million dollar budget," said Lamberti.
Israel disagrees.
"Leadership is not about the size of the organization you lead. If it was about that then the premier of communist China would be the greatest leader in the world because he's leading the most people," said Israel.
Lamberti's biggest challenge may be overcoming party affiliation. He is a Republican candidate in a heavily Democratic county. Democrats outnumber Republicans more than two to one.
"This is about public safety for everyone," said Lamberti. "Crime knows no party. Crime doesn't discriminate."
Israel has his own party issues. The Democrat was a registered Republican until last year.
"I don't know any other way to answer it than to look in the camera and tell the people my name is Scott Israel and I'm the Democratic candidate for Sheriff of Broward County and I'll be a Democrat the rest of my life," said Israel.
Come November 4th one of these men will be elected to protect the nearly two million residents of Broward County.
(© MMIX, CBS Broadcasting Inc. All Rights Reserved.)
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