JACKSONVILLE, Fla. – The race to be the next Jacksonville sheriff in 2023 is getting more crowded.
Retired JSO officer Ken Jefferson launched his campaign for sheriff on Thursday.
He had been the News4Jax crime and safety expert, but he recently resigned his position before announcing his run for office. It’s his third campaign for sheriff.
That makes for a total of six candidates in the race.
“It’s going to be hotly contested,” said News4JAX political analyst Rick Mullaney. “You have Republicans and Democrats. You have a number of candidates with a lot of experience.”
The addition of another candidate comes at a time when — according to a UNF poll released Thursday — crime is the number one concern for people in Jacksonville. The poll found that 35% of participants said crime was the top issue.
Lakesha Burton, T.K. Waters, Wayne Clark, Tony Cummings, Mat Nemeth and Jefferson are all geared up for the March 2023 election, and News4JAX asked the candidates what they would do to tackle crime if elected.
“We need to go back now to community policing,” said Clark, a Democrat. “Go back to what I call high visibility patrols, making officers more visible in communities. We need to do some more community parking walks and go back to this strategy of intelligence-led policing where we let data tells us when and where were need to deploy our officers.”
Jefferson said he feels that focusing on the homeless and mental health could help curb crime.
“We have to have innovative policing we have to have community involvement,” said Jefferson, a Democrat. “We’ve heard so many times that the Duval County jail is the biggest mental health facility that we have here in the city and it is but a lot of those people do not need to be incarcerated, they need help. They need prevention, intervention and treatment.”
Current JSO Assistant Chief Burton’s campaign team sent News4JAX a statement addressing how the Democrat has recently helped reduce crime.
“JSO’S crime numbers from 2021 show historic reductions in crime across the board in Chief Burton’s Zone 2 area. These double-digit reductions prove the power of her approach to engaging the community in addressing crime,” the statement read in part.
Dr. Cummings, also a Democrat, believes police reform and trust are key.
He sent a statement saying in part: “I have always said that the citizens’ trust of police is at the core of solving this problem and I intend to restore that trust in the men and women of the Jacksonville Sheriffs Office.”
Despite the sheriff’s race being 396 days away, the community is paying close attention.
According to the UNF poll, Burton got 39% of potential voters’ support, followed by Republican T.K. Waters, who got 27%. Matthew Nemeth, also a Republican, got 15%.
“The sheriff’s race is a little bit closer but folks are clearly excited about Lakesha Burton, the first Black woman to run for Jacksonville Sheriff. These are both highly partisan races and it should be noted that this survey is of registered voters—older voters and Republicans are much more likely to turn out in these elections,” Dr. Michael Binder, PORL faculty director and UNF professor of political science, said in a prepared statement.
The poll was taken before Jefferson entered the race.
“In the end it is very, very early,” Mullaney added. “So therefore I don’t tend to weigh polls heavily this far out. They can be influenced by a lot of factors such as name recognition and it’s really before the public has started to pay attention.”
News4JAX also reached out to the campaign teams for Waters and Nemeth but did not hear back.
Looking at campaign contributions, Burton and Waters have raised the most money so far in this race.
Here’s a full breakdown through January:
- Lakesha Burton:
- Campaign contributions total: $157,650.12 (January contributions: $12,535.22)
- Campaign in-kind contributions total: $9,428.39 (January contributions: $0)
- Political committee contributions total: $669,750.23 (January contributions: $14,700)
- Political committee in-kind contributions total: $0
- Total contributions: $836,828.74
- Wayne Clark:
- Campaign contributions total: $29,287.45 (January contributions: $2,676.66)
- Campaign in-kind contributions total: $0
- Total contributions: $29,287.45
- Tony Cummings:
- Campaign contributions total: $250 (January contributions: $25)
- Campaign in-kind contributions total: $0
- Total contributions: $250
- Mathew Nemeth:
- Campaign contributions total: $77,270 (January contributions: $260)
- Campaign in-kind contributions total: $304.88 (January contributions: $304.88)
- Total contributions: $77,574.88
- T.K. Waters:
- Campaign contributions total: $230,868 (January contributions: $15,350)
- Campaign in-kind contributions total: $0
- Political committee contributions total: $545,900 (January contributions: $91,000)
- Political committee in-kind contributions total: $0
- Total contributions: $776,768.00