Prosecutor Ed Brodsky To Run State Attorney's Office

A 47-year-old career prosecutor has won his bid for State Attoney's Office in the 12th Judicial District.

Ed Brodsky defeated John Torraco, 41, of Sarasota a criminal defense attorney who also teaches State College of Florida.

Brodsky credited the "tremendous support" he received from the State Attorney's Office, law enforcement officials and community leaders. He also said his experience set him apart from Toracco.

Brodsky has been serving as second in command at the State Attorney's Office under Earl Moreland who is retiring this year.

"I was running against an oppoenent who had never been a prosecutor, that was an important thing in this race," Brodsky said. "He has a very limited trial background. Public safety was too important to gamble on someone with such limited experience."

Brodsky said he doesn't plan to simply rest on his experience whe he takes over the office in January.

He said he will do a top to bottom anaysis of the office by meeting with "each and every person in the office," to find out what's working and what's not working. He said he will also meet with law enforcement officials and defense attorneys.

"I want to move smoothly and efficiently and do the best we can with the office," Brodsky said. "We also want to concentrate on whilte collar crime,  explotation of elderly, chronic career criminals and gang members. We will have a zero tolerance for violent crimes."

The 12th Judicial District is made up of Manatee, Sarasota and DeSoto counties. The State Attorney's Office has 160 staff members, including 72 attorneys.

Torraco told Patch that though he's disappointed, "I think we did extremely well."

Torraco's campaign manager Mark Benoit said that the biggest challenge was to pull the partisan Republican vote over enough to select Torraco, and with 155,611 votes to Brodsky's 189,411, Benoit said he feels like it's somewhat of a success.

Torraco said he would continue his law practice, real estate investments and teach classes and didn't rule out a future campaign.

"It will probably be for a higher office," Torraco said.