2020 Election Voter Guide: Sheriffs Face Challengers

D'Ann Lawrence White
Updated ·6 min read

TAMPA BAY, FL — Most election years, Tampa Bay candidates for sheriff barely get a mention in the voter guides.

The longtime, well-known incumbent quickly climbs to the top of the polls leaving the competition in the dust early in the campaign.

Not this year. Discussions of police brutality following the death of George Floyd in Minneapolis, debates about use of force, calls to defund law enforcement and increasing accountability by equipping law enforcement with body-worn cameras has cast the law's top dogs into the public spotlight.

Nowhere is that more evident than the races for sheriff in Hillsborough County and Pinellas County.

Two experienced, well-respected and often controversial sheriffs, Bob Gaultieri and Chad Chronister, both Republicans, are embroiled in hotly contested races that could challenge the longstanding practices of Tampa Bay's sheriff's offices.

Hillsborough County Sheriff

A member of the Hillsborough County Sheriff’s Office for 28 years, Chronister has a bachelor’s degree in criminal justice, a master’s in criminology from St. Leo University and is a graduate of the FBI National Academy’s 260th Session.

In 2017, he was handpicked by Sheriff David Gee to serve as his replacement and then appointed to the post by then-Gov. Rick Scott before getting the approval of voters in 2018.

Chronister is married to Nikki Debartolo, daughter of real estate magnate Edward Debartolo, the former owner of the San Francisco 49ers who's been named one of the country's top 10 billionaires by Forbes magazine.

While Chronister's known as a straight shooter and a by-the-book administrator, he has no qualms about taking on heavyweights and controversial issues.

He took heat from civil liberties activists when he worked alongside the U.S. Immigrations and Custom Enforcement agency to identify and jail undocumented immigrants throughout Hillsborough County. And he was widely rebuked for his decision to arrest the Rev. Rodney Howard-Brown of the mega church, River of Tampa Bay, for defying the county's safer-at-home order when the coronavirus pandemic was declared and hosting a full Sunday service.

Challenging Chronister are Democrat Gary Pruitt, a retired Tampa police corporal and former mall security director who ran against Chronister and lost in 2018, and Ron McMullen, a retired Tampa police commander with no party affiliation from Plant City.

Much of Pruitt's criticism of Chronister's tenure involves well-publicized incidents that Pruitt said could have easily been resolved if the sheriff outfitted his deputies with body-worn cameras, something Chronister only consented to do this year after the George Floyd riots.

Among the cases is the death of a 15-year-old Josiah Pinner who was struck and killed by a deputy in an undercover patrol vehicle while the teen was crossing the road on Jan. 11, 2019. Then, on March 26, 2019, an unarmed 17-year-old Tampa teen was shot by a Hillsborough County Sheriff's deputy and paralyzed from the waist down.

"In this day and age, I am shocked that the sheriff's office doesn't have body camera and in-car video for their deputies," Pruitt said. "The sheriff says that it's an invasion of privacy for the deputies, but what he means is it's easier to defend words instead of rock solid proof of video."

Although he said he believes in strictly enforcing the laws of the county, McMullen said he is also determined to make sure those laws are enforced equally and fairly. He said he does not believe that is occurring under Chronister's reign.

He pointed to a recent sex sting operation in which he said Chronister unfairly targeted members of the LGBTQ community.

"As a black man, I know that discrimination exists in many forms and that none of them are acceptable. Today, discrimination has a name and a face and that is Chad Chronister. The operation he ordered unfairly targeted members of the LGBTQ community and was an example of the bias that our friends in that community have faced for many years," McMullen said.

He said his goal is to make sure all residents are treated equally.

"I believe in full equity and fairness by the sheriff's office when dealing with the public," said McMullen. "There should never be two different experiences by different people when interacting with deputies. There is only one law and one way to apply it. Regardless of what zip code you live in, what color you are or how much money you have, you will be treated fairly."

Pinellas County Sheriff

On the other side of the bay, Pinellas County Sheriff Bob Gualtieri is also facing criticism over his reticence to equip his deputies with body cameras.

Gualtieri began his law enforcement career as a detention deputy in the Pinellas County jail in 1982. After attending the police academy, he joined the Dunedin Police Department as a patrol officer and later rejoined the Pinellas County Sheriff’s Office as a law enforcement deputy.

Gualtieri earned his bachelor’s degree from Eckerd College in St. Petersburg and his law degree from Stetson University College of Law. After graduating from Stetson and being admitted to the Florida Bar, Gualtieri entered private practice in Tampa, specializing in labor and employment defense. He returned to the Pinellas County Sheriff’s Office in 2006 as its general counsel and was appointed chief deputy (second in command) in 2008. Sheriff Gualtieri served in the dual role of general counsel and chief deputy until the governor appointed him sheriff in 2011. He was elected and re-elected sheriff in 2012 and 2016, respectively.

In 2019, he was named the National Sheriff's Association's Sheriff of the Year, chosen from 3,100 sheriffs nationwide.

Gualtieri made national headlines as the chairman of the Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School Public Safety Commission, recommending sweeping changes to school security including arming teachers and criticizing the Broward County Sheriff's Office's handling of the shooting.

He also caught the nation's attention in August 2018 when he refused to charge a Clearwater man who gunned down an unarmed Black man in a convenience store parking lot based on the shooter's claim he was using the "stand your ground" defense.

Gualtieri's challenger is Democrat Eliseo Santana, who retired from the Pinellas County Sheriff's Office after 31 years. Santana said he spent much of his time with the sheriff's office bringing new technology and modern policing initiatives to the sheriff's office including the use of camera ad audio equipment to ensure accuracy and accountability.

He also championed the use of body-worn cameras for deputies, a technology that, until recently, Gualtieri, refused to consider.

He said seeing the resistance to change, reform and modernization prompted him to run for sheriff.

He said the sheriff's office is overdue for changes including exchanging "domination tactics" for "de-escalation tactics," limiting armed intervention, using social workers and equipping deputies with body-worn cameras to hold everyone accountable.

"Officers on patrol should be trained, utilized and seen by their neighborhoods as public servants – not soldiers awaiting activation," Santana said. "Police agencies across the country are reining in the use of tasers and other weapons to reduce fatalities – but the current administration has resisted any calls for reform. It’s resulted in a surge of deaths in Pinellas County."

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This article originally appeared on the Tampa Patch