With early voting getting underway on Saturday, the future of criminal justice in Palm Beach County is at a crucial crossroads.
Voters will soon choose a new state attorney and public defender, as the prosecutor has long been in charge Dave Aronberg (12 years in office) and Public Prosecutor Carey Haughwout (24 years) are coming to an end.
A similar transition occurred four years ago in Broward. Voters elected Harold Pryor as state attorney and Gordon Weekes as public defender to replace two longtime incumbents, Mike Satz (44 years) and Howard Finkelstein (16 years). Pryor and Weekes ran for re-election this year and both won new terms unopposed.
The point is that these kinds of powerful positions rarely change hands.
If they do, voters have a responsibility to get it right. That’s especially true in the Palm Beach public defender race, the hottest one right now.
The outcome will be determined during the August 20 primary between Democrats Daniel Eisinger and Adam Frankel.
But the election is open to all voters, including Republicans and independents, who together far outnumber Democrats in Palm Beach because the Republican Party has not nominated a candidate for the office.
This changes the political dynamics dramatically, and it’s most evident in Frankel’s tough-on-crime talk. So much so that it seems like Frankel is in the wrong race. He should be running for state’s attorney.
Eisinger, who has been Haughwout’s chief assistant for six years, is more experienced and better qualified for the public defender job, which is why he has her support and the approval of the Sun Sentinel editorial board.
Frankel, an attorney and former Delray Beach city commissioner, touts his support for Aronberg and local police organizations, the groups whose members arrest people represented by the public defender.
It is not the PD’s job to flirt with officers. They are natural adversaries.
Frankel makes false, inflammatory accusations against Eisinger and cozys up to Trump’s MAGA base to win.
He’s turning the election into a test case to determine whether Republicans can control the outcome of a countywide office that has long been held by Democrats. (The office is supposed to be nonpartisan anyway, but that’s another debate.)
Four years ago, Eisinger co-authored an essay for the Palm Beach Post advocating ending a bail system that forces poor people, many of them black, to languish in prison while freeing others, often white, simply because they have money. Courts could impose other conditions that have nothing to do with money, he wrote.
“People should not be in prison just because they are poor,” Eisinger wrote.
Frankel is texting and calling voters using robo-calls with scare tactics, accusing Eisinger of trying to “get dangerous individuals back on the streets faster.”
A flyer from Frankel gives the false impression that the Sun Sentinel said Eisinger would “get some accused felons back on the streets faster.”
A disclaimer below cites an interview in which both candidates gave their endorsements (it’s online). Eisinger advocated bail reform in the interview, but the fear tactics about criminals walking the streets are pure Frankel’s fabrication. Yet the piece makes it sound like we said that. We didn’t. Don’t fall for it, voters.
The Palm Beach Association of Criminal Defense Lawyers called Frankel’s claims particularly troubling. “Lawyers have an ethical obligation to act in the best interests of their clients, as stated by the Florida Bar and the American Bar Association. For clients who are still in court and presumed innocent, this means having their cash bail reduced,” the group said in a letter to the Sun Sentinel.
Eisinger says Frankel is skipping Democratic forums and “leaning far to the right in MAGA.” The Florida Jolt, a blog aimed at the same MAGA-right constituency, jumped in, calling Frankel a “moderate” and Eisinger a “far leftist.”
Eisinger criticized Frankel’s claim that he was a “champion of public safety,” calling it a misinterpretation of what a public defender entails.
“He clearly has no understanding of the role of the defense attorney in our criminal justice system,” Eisinger posted on Facebook. “He believes that the police, prosecution and defense should be ‘allies.’ The Public Defender is a constitutional officer charged with advocating for the poor (and) fighting for individualized treatment of their clients. Justice only occurs when the police, prosecution and defense meet their ethical obligations in their respective roles. This is something my opponent either does not understand or chooses to forget in order to win an election.”
By the way, just to clear up any confusion, Adam Frankel is not related to the popular and better known Congresswoman, Lois Frankel of West Palm Beach.
The name association works both ways. Adam Frankel will benefit voters who recognize his name and like Frankel, but it will turn off Republicans who might not vote for the Democratic congresswoman, a longtime liberal champion.
Are Democratic voters in Palm Beach willing to sit idly by as Republicans choose the region’s next public defender, potentially 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.
