Sheriff Gregory Tony’s political action committee moved swiftly to take advantage of Vice President Kamala Harris’ surging popularity to tout his bona fides to voters in the Aug. 20 Democratic primary.
A mailer from Tony’s PAC features a picture of him with Harris, paired with a quote from former President Barack Obama.
It’s notable for the speed. The mailer from the Broward First PAC arrived in Democratic voters’ mailboxes in Broward County on Friday, just 20 days after Harris entered the presidential race when President Joe Biden ended his campaign for a second term.
Harris has generated enormous excitement among Democratic voters — exactly the supporters he needs in the four-way primary for sheriff. (A Florida Atlantic University poll released Wednesday found that 94% of likely Democratic voters in the state said they’d vote Harris for president).
The winner of the Democratic primary for sheriff — Tony, Steve Geller, David Howard or Al Pollock — faces only nominal opposition from an independent candidate in November, and is virtually certain to win the general election.
The photo of the sheriff in uniform standing next to the vice president was taken in March, on the day Harris toured the site of the Marjory Stoneman Douglas mass shooting to discuss gun-violence prevention efforts. The photo was posted months ago on Tony’s Instagram page.
The Broward First mailer is one of many about the sheriff’s race landing in Democratic voters’ mailboxes from candidates and their associated political committees.
The mailing featuring Harris is careful. It doesn’t state that there’s an endorsement of Tony from Harris or Obama.
Its theme is “change,” given that Harris would be the nation’s first woman president and the first with parents who were from Jamaica and India. It reminds voters that Tony changed the agency as “the first African American to serve as Broward County’s sheriff.”
In case all that’s too subtle, the Obama quote states, “We are the change we seek.”
There’s an ironic element to Tony’s Broward First committee paying for a mailer featuring Harris.
Some of the financial muscle behind Broward First comes from Republicans close to Gov. Ron DeSantis, who is not exactly a fan of the Democratic presidential nominee. Example of a DeSantis comment: “Her tenure as VP has been disastrous.”
Tony is sheriff because of DeSantis, and the Stoneman Douglas massacre.
DeSantis appointed Tony in 2019 after he suspended previous Sheriff Scott Israel. The governor charged Israel with incompetence and neglect of duty in connection with the 2018 school massacre, in which 17 people were killed and 17 injured, and the 2017 mass shooting at Fort Lauderdale-Hollywood International Airport, in which five people were killed and six injured.
In 2020, when Tony ran and won a full term as sheriff, his political action committee Broward First got fundraising help from big-name Republican DeSantis allies. As he geared up for the 2024 election, the Republican heavyweights close to the governor again helped raise money for Broward First.
Since Broward First geared up its fundraising for this year’s campaign in the spring of last year, it has raised $820,000. About two-thirds came during the second six months of 2023.
Voters have received some negative information about Tony as well. Democrats received an anti-Tony, pro-Geller mailer from a committee called “Honesty and Integrity for Broward Citizens.”
“Gregory Tony is a proven liar who is not fit to serve,” it declares above a picture of the incumbent.
The flip side declares that “Our current Sheriff has lied and broken the rules time and time again.”
The beneficiary of the mailer, Geller, is shown in a picture from his time in the Plantation Police Department and praised as a candidate of “Integrity. Leadership. Experience.”
And it attempts to remind voters of Tony’s links to DeSantis including a news headline when DeSantis called Tony a favorite Democrat. It came from December 2023, when DeSantis was seeking the Republican presidential nomination. Asked to name his favorite Democrat in Florida during a CNN town hall, he said Tony was one of the “good ones.”
The committee has taken in $172,000, according to reports filed with the Florida Division of Elections. All but $7,000 came via four contributions on July 6 and July 10, from Mark Groban, a family friend, of Rockville, Md.
Anthony Man can be reached at aman@sunsentinel.com and can be found @browardpolitics on Bluesky, Threads, Facebook and Mastodon.
