Lucas claims Milwaukee County sheriff primary
As winner of Democratic nomination, he’s likely to become next sheriff
Earnell Lucas, a Major League Baseball security official, won Tuesday’s Democratic primary election for Milwaukee County sheriff and he becomes a sure bet to be hired by voters in November to a four-year term in the office.
Lucas defeated Acting Sheriff Richard Schmidt by a solid margin Tuesday after a race featuring surrogate groups that pumped out messages and spent money on behalf of both campaigns. Lucas received 57% of the vote, according to complete, unofficial results.
Robert J. Ostrowski, a deputy sheriff for 16 years, failed to gain traction against his better-known and better-funded competitors in the three-way partisan primary.
The winner of the primary likely will become the next sheriff since no Republican is on the ballot in the Nov. 6 general election. Deputy James Villwock, a Republican, is planning a write-in campaign to challenge the Democratic Party nominee for the office.
Schmidt could not shed the mantle of his close association with former Sheriff David A. Clarke Jr. and his role as the department’s second in command since 2010.
Lucas, a 25-year veteran of the Milwaukee Police Department, gained endorsements from most other Democratic Party leaders in the county, including U.S. Rep. Gwen Moore, District Attorney John Chisholm and Milwaukee Mayor Tom Barrett.
Lucas urged voters to make a clean break from the Clarke era. With a primary victory in hand, Lucas told his supporters Tuesday evening that their work was not done yet.
“The work just begins tonight,” he said at a post-election party the Rave/Eagles Club in Milwaukee.
Schmidt on Tuesday pledged to support Lucas.
Schmidt is a 32-year veteran of the agency and his campaign was supported by $300,000 worth of online advertising and broadcast commercials paid for by Leadership MKE, an independent political expenditure committee bankrolled by County Executive Chris Abele. Abele also publicly endorsed Schmidt in the race.
Schmidt, Lucas and Ostrowski sparred over which of them would move the department the greatest distance from Clarke’s legacy of mistreatment of jail inmates, inadequate staff and budget deficits.
Clarke resigned in August 2017 and Schmidt became acting sheriff.
In his campaign, Schmidt emphasized the dozen or more changes he made at the agency since Clarke’s departure, from balancing the budget and going after reckless drivers on freeways to reforming jail operations after several custody deaths during Clarke’s tenure.
He reminded voters of his long experience in the department beginning in June 1986 when he worked in the jail and on patrol duty. Schmidt was promoted to sergeant in 1996. He became a captain in 2002, deputy inspector in 2003 and inspector of detention services in 2006. Clarke promoted him to senior commander in 2010.
Lucas retired as a captain in 2002 from the Milwaukee Police Department and went to work for Major League Baseball as supervisor of security and executive protection. He currently is employed as MLB’s chief liaison of security and investigations.
The central theme in the Lucas campaign was “restoring integrity to the Sheriff’s Office” post-Clarke. He has pledged to return deputies to doing more police work, such as drug enforcement and stopping human trafficking, and to ensure the jail is a secure and humane facility.
Voces de la Frontera, a local immigrant rights advocacy group, supported Lucas in the race and recently clashed with Schmidt on such controversial issues as jail deaths under former Clarke, while Schmidt was second in command though not the top jail administrator, and enforcement of federal immigration laws.
Voces representatives last week said Schmidt bears responsibility for deaths that occurred when he was second in command. Schmidt responded that he made changes in jail staffing and supervision soon after becoming the acting sheriff one year ago.
One of those reforms included adding three wellness monitors to the jail staff. They are responsible for daily one-onone contact with inmates in mental health, medical and discipline units.
The current annual salary for the acting sheriff is $120,555.