A.G. Gancarski
The 4th circuit Public Defender race will have a closed primary between GOP incumbent Matt Shirk and challenger Charles Cofer, as write-in candidate Roland Falcon entered the contest Wednesday.
If Shirk and Cofer had remained the only two on the ballot, all voters could have cast their ballots and the race would have been decided by the Aug. 30 primary.
Falcon, a 59-year-old lawyer with four years of Public Defender’s office experience in Pensacola and the Keys, recognizes the uphill battle facing him, and isn’t particularly concerned with winning, he told FloridaPolitics.com Wednesday.
Falcon is looking at running to build “name recognition.”
Despite his candidacy having the effect of closing the GOP primary, Falcon, a lifelong independent voter, asserted that effect didn’t cross his mind. “I vote Democrat or Republican, depending on the person.”
As well, Falcon wasn’t “about to change to a Democrat or a Republican over this.”
His ultimate goal is not Public Defender, Falcon said.
“I’m a poor lawyer. I’m my own secretary. I vacuum, wash windows, write motions. I do want to become a judge, and this is a test: do people know me?”
“I have a name recognition problem,” Falcon adds, which seems a curious place for a write-in campaign’s genesis.
Curious or not, though, Falcon is in the race for 4th Circuit Public Defender.
This piece has been edited to reflect disputed quotations from a May 4, 2016 conversation.
