Fernandez Rundle Has Earned Your Vote!

As the country continues to grapple with incidents of racism and questions about police brutality, State Attorney Katherine Fernandez Rundle is leading prosecutions and working with local cities to right wrongs.

Within weeks of a controversial incident, her office announced that a former Miami Gardens police officer was charged with battery and misconduct for using a stun gun and kneeling on the neck of a black woman in a case earlier this year at Tootsie’s Cabaret.

On June 30, the State Attorney announced the arrest of a 58-year-old convicted felon who was charged with two new felonies after pointing a gun at a Black American man in front of his own home. Rundle’s office alleges that the Black American homeowner’s race sparked the unprovoked confrontation, which could easily have turned deadly.

And, these are only a couple in a long list of crimes that she has taken on in her enviable career as a public servant. To name them all would take several columns because her entire career has been dedicated to public service.

Florida’s first  female Cuban-American State Attorney has been re-elected several times since 1993. Prior to that, she worked for 15 years as an Assistant State Attorney.

I support her today, as I have since she was first appointed to the office, because she has been a great crime fighter and has advanced important issues that otherwise would have been ignored.

Here are some of the highlights of her career:

She is the only State Attorney in Florida that has a Child Support Enforcement Office. Her staff, in addition to everything else they are doing, processes more than 80,000 of these  cases each year. Additionally, she authored a bill to provide Florida police officers with information about child support orders that because of her are in the Florida Crime Information Computer system.

She partnered with the American Civil Liberties Union of Florida, Miami-Dade Elections Department, South Florida Workforce and Miami-Dade Clerk of the Courts Harvey Ruvin to create the “Second Chance” program. If eligible, ex-offenders who have paid their debt to society can attend free workshops that give them a second chance at life by sealing or expunging their record.

Rundle’s dedication to eliminating human trafficking, one of the most horrific scourges of the world, spurred the creation of a special prosecution unit of attorneys and investigators to run down perpetrators. She expanded its impact by creating a coalition that included community service groups and businesses, enlisting them to lend their resources to fight it.

Just three short years ago, she used a U.S. Department of Justice grant to launch the Veteran’s Court, which flagged veterans and referred them to specialized services within hours of an arrest. The program was created in collaboration with several other stakeholders, which worked together to get it off the ground.

These accomplishments are a testament not only to her commitment to addressing specific issues that undermine the health of the community, but also speaks to her ability to lead others to achieve something together that the individual could not achieve on their own.

State Attorney Katherine Fernandez Rundle needs Our help to be re-elected on  August 18.

Republicans, Independents , and Democrats all will have the opportunity to vote for their State Attorney.