As early voting began Saturday, the future of criminal justice in Palm Beach County is at a vital crossroads.
Voters will soon choose a new state attorney and public defender as the long dominance of prosecutor Dave Aronberg (12 years in office) and Public Defender Carey Haughwout (24 years) come to an end.
A similar transition took place in Broward four years ago. Voters chose Harold Pryor as state attorney and Gordon Weekes as public defender to replace two long-time incumbents, Mike Satz (44 years) and Howard Finkelstein (16 years). Facing re-election this year, Pryor and Weekes both won new terms without opposition.
The point is, these powerful positions rarely change hands.
When they do, voters have a responsibility to get it right. That’s especially true in the race for Palm Beach public defender, the hotter one at the moment.
The outcome will be decided in the primary on Aug. 20 between Democrats Daniel Eisinger and Adam Frankel.
But it is open to all voters, including Republicans and independents, who together far outnumber Democrats in Palm Beach, because the Republican Party did not field a candidate for the position.
This greatly alters the political dynamics, and that comes through most clearly in Frankel’s tough-on-crime talk. So clearly, in fact, that it looks as if Frankel is in the wrong race. He should be campaigning for state attorney.
Eisinger, who has been Haughwout’s chief assistant for six years, is more experienced and better qualified for public defender, which is why he has her support, and the Sun Sentinel Editorial Board’s endorsement.
Frankel is a defense lawyer and former Delray Beach city commissioner who touts his endorsements from Aronberg and from local police organizations — the groups whose members arrest people represented by the public defender.
Cozying up to cops is not the P.D.’s job. They are natural adversaries.
Frankel is making false, inflammatory accusations against Eisinger and cuddling up to Trump’s MAGA base to win.
He’s making the election a test case as to whether Republicans can decide the outcome of a countywide office long held by Democrats. (The office should not be partisan to begin with, but that’s another debate.)
Eisinger co-authored a Palm Beach Post essay four years ago in which he argued for ending a cash bail system that forces poor people, many of them Black, to languish in jail while others, often white, go free solely because they have money. Courts could impose other conditions that don’t involve money, he wrote.
“People (should) not sit in jail just because they are poor,” Eisinger wrote.
Frankel is texting and robo-calling voters with scare tactics that accuse Eisinger of wanting to put “dangerous individuals back on our streets faster.”
A Frankel flyer falsely makes it appear that the Sun Sentinel said Eisinger would let “some accused felons back on the street faster.”
A disclaimer below cites an endorsement interview in which both candidates participated (it’s online). Eisinger advocated for bail reform in the interview, but the scare tactics about felons walking the streets is purely Frankel’s invention. Yet the piece makes it appear as if we said that. We didn’t. Don’t fall for it, voters.
The Palm Beach Association of Criminal Defense Lawyers called Frankel’s claims especially troubling. “Attorneys have an ethical duty to advocate for the client’s best interest, as stated by the Florida Bar and the American Bar Association. For pre-trial clients who are presumed innocent, this means lowering cash bail,” the group said in a letter to the Sun Sentinel.
Eisinger says Frankel is skipping Democratic forums and “leaning way into the MAGA right.” The Florida Jolt, a blog aimed at the same MAGA right constituency, took the bait, calling Frankel a “moderate” and Eisinger an “extreme leftist.”
Eisinger attacked Frankel’s claim to be a “champion for public safety” as a misread of what a public defender is about.
“He clearly has no understanding about the role of the defense lawyer in our criminal justice system,” Eisinger posted on Facebook. “He believes that the police, prosecution and the defense should be ‘allies.’ The Public Defender is a constitutional officer charged with the duty of advocating for the poor (and) must fight for individualized treatment of their clients. Justice only occurs when the police, prosecution and defense fulfill their ethical obligations in their respective roles. This is something my opponent either doesn’t understand or chooses to forget in order to win an election.”
By the way, to dispel any confusion, Adam Frankel is not related to the popular and better-known member of Congress, Lois Frankel of West Palm Beach.
The name association cuts both ways. Adam Frankel will benefit from voters who recognize his name and who like Frankel, but it will turn off Republicans who would not vote for the Democratic congresswoman, a long-time liberal champion.
Are Democratic voters in Palm Beach willing to sit idly by while Republicans choose the county’s next public defender, possibly for the next two decades?
Let’s hope not.
Steve Bousquet is Opinion Editor of the Sun Sentinel and a columnist in Tallahassee and Fort Lauderdale. Contact him at sbousquet@sunsentinel.com or (850) 567-2240 and follow him on X, formerly Twitter, @stevebousquet.
