2020 Election – Hillsborough County Sheriff
The incumbent is “married into money” Chad Chronister opposed by Independent Ron McMullen and Democrat Gary Pruitt. Pruitt is the only candidate who returned my calls (and you know my rule). I didn’t expect to hear from Chronister.
Chronister is the recommendation of Times Editorial Board, and we could do worse. I do have some serious issues with Chronister, however. First and foremost, he opposed the mask mandate, and he and his officers were never very aggressive in enforcing it. He also makes sure his name is painted on nearly every piece of Sheriff’s department equipment often in type larger than the words “Sheriff’s Department.” It gets a little old. Another important issue is that, on at least one occasion, he sent an on-duty Sheriff’s Department command officer, in uniform and in a county vehicle to stand in for him at a political event. This is a clear Hatch Act violation. Also, the signs of his competitors seem to disappear a lot. There is also an issue of under-reporting deaths in the county jail system.
In my conversations with Gary Pruitt I found him to be genuine and level-headed. He seems to care a lot more about “law enforcement” than about politics. He wants body cams and windshield cams. He also favors an actual “Citizens’ Oversight” function over just an “advisory committee.” He believes that combined with unionizing the deputies would create a balance of power that would allow good officers more freedom to report bad conduct and help root out bad conduct.
For those reasons, I think I’m going to go with Mike Pruitt as my recommended candidate for Sheriff.
