Fernandez Rundle In Political Battle For Life
MIAMI (CBS4) -- Katherine Fernandez Rundle wants voters to re-elect her as Miami-Dade's State Attorney.
"I really believe in the voters, I believe in the people. I've been working for them and I serve them," she told CBS4's Gio Benitez.
For 19 years, she's headed up the fourth largest State Attorney's Office in the nation.
Gio asked Fernandez Rundle what she thinks is the biggest challenge for Miami-Dade residents.
"When you have high unemployment, a bad economy, and a growth spurt which Dade county has had, that's a natural formula for an increase in crime. Instead, what we have seen is a decrease in crime," she said.
She is running against defense lawyer Rod Vereen. He accused the Fernandez Rundle campaign of having ties to Deisy Cabrera, a woman arrested for voter fraud. Fernandez Rundle stepped away from the case, citing a potential conflict of interest. She said she received unconfirmed reports that an employee for a company hired by the campaign was seen with Cabrera.
"There are the people in the community that will try to tear you down, there are people that want to attack you, they'll create different issues and this became a distractor and I didn't want a distractor." she explained.
Fernandez Rundle said she will continue to prosecute other voter fraud cases in hopes of changing the way ballots are manipulated.
"So I've also asked my Grand Jury to come back and look at these issues, and let's look at it broadly, let's address all of these issues, because it happens not just here in Miami, but it happens across the state of Florida and it happens in other parts of the country.
The August 14th election is a primary, but in this case, both candidates are Democrats. That means the winner on Tuesday will be the only candidate on the November ballot.
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