Jesse Scheckner
Miami-Dade County’s two remaining Sheriff candidates, Democrat James Reyes and Republican Rosie Cordero-Stutz, appear to both be keen on debating one another multiple times before Election Day.
The rules and locales still need to be decided, but neither seems reluctant to compare their record to the other’s.
Reyes’ campaign Friday challenged Cordero-Stutz to four televised debates, two in English, two in Spanish. Those events and two additional community-hosted forums should help to clear up any misconceptions voters have about the candidates and dispel “lies” Cordero-Stutz’s campaign has told, said Reyes’ senior adviser, Christian Ulvert.
“With our opponent already spreading lies, misinformation and driving fear into the community with a divisive agenda that puts public safety at the back-burner, voters should learn about the clear differences between the two,” he said.
“We look forward to (Cordero-Stutz) accepting the debate structure. Our campaign team is ready to work with TV networks, who have sent formal debate invitations, and community organizations to set a debate schedule that is robust and provides voters the best opportunity to make an informed decision.”
Cordero-Stutz’s camp said she is eager to get into the proverbial ring.
“Rosie Cordero-Stutz has participated in over a dozen debates and public forums, and she looks forward to contrasting her record as a veteran police officer and executive against a candidate who has no policing experience,” the campaign said.
“She is ready to participate in as many debates as necessary once the campaign evaluates each invitation and agrees on the parameters for an impartial and fair exchange.”
Reyes, who now serves as Miami-Dade Chief of Public Safety, overwhelmingly won a four-way Democratic Primary last week to clinch his spot on the General Election ballot in November. He took more than twice as large a share of the vote as his closest competitor.
Cordero-Stutz, an Assistant Director of the soon-to-be-replaced Miami-Dade Police Department, defeated 10 other Republicans on Aug. 20 to punch her ticket to the General Election.
A week later, after several of her former Primary foes endorsed her, Cordero-Stutz took a swipe at Reyes and Miami-Dade Mayor Daniella Levine Cava, who is backing Reyes for Sheriff, for what she called ‘unthinkable cuts to public safety.” Cordero-Stutz pointed to a spending breakdown in Levine Cava’s proposed 2024-25 budget that showed a 19% earmark for public safety. In the 2023-24 budget, the cut for public safety was 30%.
Speaking with WPLG on Sunday, Levine Cava said the funding shift reflects the change from a Police Department operating under and answerable to the county Mayor and Commission to an independent Sheriff’s Office. More funding could be cleared, she said, on an as-needed basis.
“We are putting money into the maintenance of the Police Department, plus the changes that are mandated, plus creating a reserve for what may come up. And we do expect that whosoever (is) elected is going to come knocking at the County Commission and say, ‘This is what we need,’” she said. “But I can assure you that there are no cuts to public safety in this budget.”
Cordero-Stutz said the Mayor was “unable to explain” where the money was and wasn’t going, but that “slashing funding where it matters most — public safety and law and order — has a name: defunding the police.”
She also threw shade at Reyes, whom she said has “ZERO policing experience.”
Reyes came to Miami-Dade in December 2022 after more than two decades at the Broward Sheriff’s Office, where he held the rank of colonel and ran the county’s Corrections Department. During his time in Broward, his campaign said, he spearheaded the county’s first Real Time Crime Center and the first Research, Development and Training Center in Broward Sheriff’s Office history.
Within a year of taking over Miami-Dade Corrections and Rehabilitation, the department — long under federal scrutiny — was recognized to be under “substantial compliance” with the U.S. Department of Justice standards for the first time in more than a decade.
In November, Levine Cava promoted Reyes to Chief of Public Safety, a job in which he oversees the Police, Fire Rescue and Corrections Departments.
Cordero-Stutz has spent her nearly 29-year law enforcement career with the Miami-Dade Police Department. She said her experience far outshines Reyes’.
Reyes noted that unlike his opponent, he knows how a Sheriff’s Office operates. For his last four of 22-plus years he spent at the Broward Sheriff’s Office, he was the agency’s Executive Director.
The General Election is on Nov. 5.
