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For the first time in twelve years, Palm Beach County will have a new top prosecutor.
After three terms in office, State Attorney Dave Aronberg is not running for re-election. There are six candidates running for the job and three of them are in the Democrat Primary, which is in our Election Spotlight.
Alexcia Cox and Craig Williams are chief assistants to Aronberg.
Williams on what he wants to change at the State Attorney's Office.
"The felony units are doing much better than the misdemeanor unit and a couple of the speciality units. So I believe that my leadership skills and the way I'm involved every single day in helping make everybody do better work there will translate into the entire office being much more efficient and much more productive in having better results for our community."
Cox, who also heads up the Domestic Violence unit, says she's proud of the work the office has accomplished under Aronberg...
"All in all I think we've done a great job with the resources that we have. I do believe that with new leadership comes new perspective, new visions, new priorities and I think there are some initiatives and things that I want to do because either they're important to me or I feel there is maybe a need or a gap that we can fill."
Among those initiatives, she wants to establish a dedicated Hate Crimes unit.
Gregg Lerman is a longtime defense attorney in private practice. But he says he has experience training prosecutors and has the skills, knowledge and best ideas to improve the State Attorney's Office.
"A couple of weeks ago, at two different meetings on the same day Dave Aronberg was asked why he was leaving, and he said 'Because there's a need for change and there's a need for a new perspective in the office.' You're not going to get that by simply elevating two people from within the office. If there's need for change and a new perspective, it has to come from outside the office."
There are also two candidates running in a Republican Primary and an NPA candidate in this race. We're reaching out to all of them.