It seems to me that Shoap easily proved that Scott's statement last week was a lie. There was no "free pass" if these places didn't exist or changed hands.

Scott has made a mess of crime, but he's good at PR. This is sad to say, but I fear most voters will fail to look at facts and be fooled by his gift of gab.

I pray for those of us in Lee County if we have another term of this crap, as it looks like is going to be the case. Sigh.

I've lived here for my whole life and crime has only gotten bad, bad, bad in the last couple of years.

I like his Chemo look......

sheriff scott and the lcso do a great job. scott isn't the problem. he's a good guy doing a very difficult high-profile job. the problem is the economy, illegal immigration, bush and buckshot cheney.

shoap is just a politician trying to use political tactics for personal gain.

shoap... you already lost once, go away

If the economy, illegal immigration, bush and cheney are the problem, how come crime is up in Lee County but down in Collier and Charlotte?

My house here is for sale and I'm worried I'll never be able to dump it because of the crime here lately.

I can't believe that the Sheriff is taking credit for the grow house busts in Lehigh Acres. All we see is his face on television. When the deputies find them and do all the work, all we see is him. I don't know how he won the election; maybe the voter turnout was low because of Hurricane Charlie the week before, I don't know. But what I do know is that when Shoap was our Sheriff, crime was low and it was a safe place to live. I didn't see Shoap's face on the television all the time taking the credit for work done by the troops.

I see the Sheriff calling it "my office" all the time. He must be so arrogant to forget that the office belongs to the voters...

I can assure you that Shoap will get my vote. It will be a vote for safe streets once again.

blaming scott for grow houses is like blaming you if someone throws a paper wrapper in your yard

lee county has a worse problem because illegal immigrants are more numerous in lee than in charlotte or collier. that isn't the fault of law enforcement. that's federal and LOCAL government ineptitude

A lot of factors must be considered:

Economic downturn- more people turn to indoor growhouses out of monetary desperation
Influx of migrants - more growhouses; you don't risk losing your house when you're in rental property
Increased unemployment & layoffs - more growhouses

But the main thing that will drive up the crime rate for a sheriff is more arrests! If you didn't initiate any arrests for growhouses... your statistics for that crime would be zero!

I've heard this argument in countless sheriff's races. One sheriff I know initiated an agressive drug enforcement program... his drug crime statistics skyrocketed due to all the arrests...you guessed it... his opponent claimed drug crime was out of control due to the increase in arrests!

http://www.drugpolicy.org/news/incarc...

http://www.miamiherald.com/548/story/...

Sheriff budget INCREASED 245%
2001- $66,755,000
2007- $163,000,000 ....

Charlie Green, Lee County Clerk of Court, recognizes the huge cost to taxpayers and loss of personal liberties from unintended consequences of victim-less crimes and the drug war.

The solution includes electing LEGISLATORS who will REMOVE bad laws that continue to create unintended consequences.

While other big states find ways to reduce prison population and crime at the same time, Florida continues to stuff its prisons, DESTROY people's lives, and WASTE taxes.