With 18 years as a Manatee and Sarasota Prosecutor, Peter Lombardo is contending against Ed Brodsky for the State Attorney Republican candidacy. Lombardo seeks to keep the innocent safe while eliminating gang violence, pills mills, exploitation of the elderly and white collar crime. In murder and sex crime cases, Lombardo has a 100 percent conviction rate. He served as Chief of the Felony Division from 1996 to 2006 and has since been privately practicing law since. Lombardo manifested Bill 92.565 that sealed a prosecution loophole, allowing confessed child molesters to be brought to trial more easily. Lombardo has remained in good standing with the Florida Bar since 1988 and was previously a volunteer judge for the Manatee County Teen Court. Likening the position he’s vying for to the job of a superhero, Lombardo intends “to be a tough crime fighter who will seek justice.” He believes a law jailing “illegal aliens” who commit a Florida felony should be created. The new law would ensure the convicted’s imprisonment until becoming deported. Additionally, “Manatee County has approximately 800 gang members. Sarasota has hundreds also. We need to prosecute all of them under the RICO statute,” Lombardo said. The State Attorney’s office does not currently use the bill during gang-related trials, but “under RICO we can take the gang members off the street now and prosecute them for the crimes already committed, not wait until they kill 9-year-old boys or kill two British tourists.”