Alachua County Sheriff Sadie Darnell is endorsing Sen. Dave Aronberg, D-Greenacres, for attorney general. That’s a strong indication that Darnell’s friend and former hometown state Senator, Rod Smith, will not run for AG in 2010.

Smith is the former state attorney who prosecuted Gainesville serial killer Danny Rolling before becoming a state Senator and losing a 2006 Democratic primary for governor. He has been considering the AG race and would be considered a formidable candidate because of his statewide name-identification.

Smith today stopped short of saying he won’t run for AG, but noted that he talked to Darnell before she endorsed Aronberg.

“I have not made any announcement on this, but certainly when my friends are announcing their support for other people, it can be assumed that most of them don’t think I’m going to be running,” Smith said.

Asked about Smith, Darnell said: “I’m hoping he’s going to be the next lieutenant governor. Rod is somebody that needs to be in some key position for the state of Florida.”

Aronberg and state Sen. Dan Gelber, D-Miami Beach, are seeking the Democratic nomination for attorney general. Incumbent Republican AG Bill McCollum is running for governor. Lt. Gov. Jeff Kottkamp is running for attorney general on the GOP side, as is Jim Lewis of Fort Lauderdale.

Darnell is the fifth sheriff in Florida to endorse Aronberg.

She called Aronberg “experienced and ready to serve as Florida’s next Attorney General…No one in this race has the same experience having already served as an assistant attorney general, and a legislative record of sponsoring and securing the passage of stronger public safety laws in Florida.”

Tags: Dan Gelber, Rod Smith, Sadie Darnell

This entry was posted on Tuesday, October 6th, 2009 at 3:55 pm and is filed under 2010 campaigns, Dave Aronberg, George Bennett. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.