Vote Pollock for sheriff, union says
Controversial figures Israel, Tony don’t get union’s support in sheriff’s race primary
The union representing Broward Sheriff ’s Office deputies said “no” Tuesday to the two men who’ve been considered the leading contenders in this year’s election for sheriff, instead endorsing Al Pollock.
“Al Pollock is a lawman, not a showman,” the union said.
He’s among a large field of candidates in the August 2020 Democratic primary. The race has been dominated by Sheriff Gregory Tony, who was appointed to the job in 2019 when Gov. Ron DeSantis suspended then-Sheriff Scott Israel.
Broward County is so overwhelmingly Democratic that the August primary is the pivotal election. Officially there is a general election in November, but there are no Republicans in countywide elected office and none on the County Commission.
Tony and Israel are controversial figures to many, and the union doesn’t like either one.
In a news release Tuesday, the Broward Sheriff’s Office Deputies Association Local IUPA 6020 said it was endorsing Pollock, a former colonel in the Sheriff ’s Office.
The union said Pollack received 57% of the votes, “making him the clear choice of our deputies and sergeants,” but didn’t say how many people voted.
“The union and the membership believe Alvin Pollock’s’ life experience, and his rise through the ranks of BSO from Road Patrol Deputy to Colonel give him the expansive and comprehensive knowledge of the county and the Sheriff ’s Of
fice that make him the single-most qualified candidate to run the agency starting on day one,” the endorsement said, adding that Pollack’s “demeanor and humility set him apart from the field.”
Last month, the union voted no confidence in
Tony. In 2018, when Israel was sheriff, it voted no confidence in him. When Israel’s predecessor, Al Lamberti, was in office, another Sheriff’s Office union voted no confidence in him.
DeSantis suspended Israel over his handling of the 2018 Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School massacre and the Fort Lauderdale-Hollywood International
Airport shooing. As the campaign has heated up, Tony has been subject to scrutiny, including the previously undisclosed information that when he was 14 he killed a man in Philadelphia.