Alvin Brown campaign attacks Lenny Curry PAC ad

For the last few weeks, the Lenny Curry campaign has slammed the Alvin Brown Administration for a reduction in police on the streets and an uptick in crime. That argument, which was launched during a January joint press conference with Curry and Sheriff John Rutherford, reached its zenith recently, with a hard-hitting ad from the Together for a Greater Jacksonville PAC that argued that rates for murder, rape, and assault went up on Alvin Brown’s watch.

For their part, the Brown Campaign, via Campaign Manager Fabien Levy, calls it a “false attack ad”.

“This ad is just ‘Lying Lenny'” — a nickname that almost certainly will be on mailpieces soon from a PAC soon — “putting politics ahead of Jacksonville once again. It’s sad that false and negative attacks are all we’ve come to expect out of the partisan campaign of the political attack dog and party boss Lenny Curry,” claims Levy, who contends that Jacksonville is enjoying historically low crime rates.

“The truth is, under Mayor Alvin Brown’s leadership, overall crime is at a 42-year low and is even 10 percent less than when he entered office,” Levy said. “Mayor Brown has increased the sheriff’s budget by $48 million over the last four years, bringing the sheriff’s annual budget to nearly $400 million — close to 40 percent of the city’s overall general fund budget. The current budget has put 3,000 officers on Jacksonville streets, while the mayor has supported additional grants to hire more officers and called on the sheriff’s department to hire more cops with the existing budget.”

“Mayor Brown is providing the sheriff the necessary resources to fight crime, while also focusing on prevention and intervention to ensure it never happens. He is committed to ensuring our children are able to grow up in safe and supervised environments by investing in schools, after school and summer programs, and initiatives that put people to work,” Levy continued.

I talked to Brian Hughes of the Curry campaign, and he was dismissive of these remarks, describing a “Democrat Hit Team” that was being “beyond disingenuous” by “responding with mudslinging”.

“Every single point in the ad has been validated by third party data”, including “state crime data” and FDLE data, added Hughes. “They may not like the facts but they don’t get to pick their own. There is evidence that they cut JSO budgets. Sheriff Rutherford says that cost [his administration] 147 cops on the street.” Meanwhile, Hughes added, incident rates of murder, rape, and other violent crimes rise.

“The ad is a statement of facts. Nothing in that ad is anything but the truth,” Hughes added.