Daniel Bice

Milwaukee Journal Sentinel

Milwaukee County Sheriff David A. Clarke Jr. now has a formidable foe if he wants to run for another term.

Former Milwaukee Police Capt. Earnell Lucas, a vice president for Major League Baseball, is planning to challenge Clarke in the 2018 Democratic primary, according to his campaign adviser.

"Earnell hasn't announced, but he's decided to get into this race," said Sachin Chheda, a political strategist at Nation Consulting. "Earnell is in the process of getting organized."

Already in campaign mode, Chheda described Lucas as "a dignified man with gravitas, as opposed to what we have now." Lucas did not return a call for comment.

A Clarke adviser said the sheriff had no comment on Lucas' candidacy. Clarke and Lucas would have served together in the Milwaukee Police Department for decades and been promoted to leadership roles under then-Chief Arthur Jones before they left in 2002.

What's not clear is whether Clarke wants to run for a fifth full term.

In the past 2 1/2 years, Clarke has seen his national profile soar as he became a regular guest on Fox News shows, a popular figure on the conservative lecture circuit and a frequent advocate and surrogate for President Donald Trump.

The first-term Republican president interviewed the sheriff earlier this year for what was believed to be a post in the U.S. Department of Homeland Security, and Clarke has been vague when asked if he plans to join the Trump team eventually. He has also been recruited heavily by out-of-state groups to run against U.S. Sen. Tammy Baldwin, a Wisconsin Democrat, in her 2018 re-election bid.

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And, of course, there's always the option that Clarke could turn his role as "America's Sheriff" into a full-time, money-making gig. He's already pulling in big bucks by giving dozens of talks around the country while still serving as Milwaukee County sheriff.

But even as he has become a national figure and lightning rod, Clarke's numbers have dipped locally, with his approval rating standing at 31% in Milwaukee County and only 13% among Democrats here, according to one survey. The conservative sheriff runs as a Democrat in Milwaukee County because he couldn't be elected otherwise.

Milwaukee County Circuit Judge John Siefert and Milwaukee Police Lt. Chris Moews have already expressed interest in challenging Clarke in next year's sheriff's race. But Moews has lost twice to the sheriff in the 2010 and 2014 Democratic primaries. Siefert, a former cop, received the lowest marks of any circuit judge in the state in a survey conducted by the Gannett Wisconsin Media Investigative Team in 2015.

Lucas would likely be a superior candidate to either of them.

A 25-year veteran at the MPD, Lucas rose to the rank of captain, overseeing District 3 from 1999 to 2002. He has spent the last 15 years with Major League Baseball, starting as the head of then-Commissioner Bud Selig's security detail. He is now the MLB's vice president of security and facility management.

Lucas, a 58-year-old Milwaukee resident, is a graduate of Marquette University with a degree in criminology and law studies. He also is a graduate of the Federal Bureau of Investigation National Academy and the Northwestern University Traffic Institute School of Police Staff and Command.

Chheda said Lucas would run as a Democrat against Clarke.

"Lucas isn't political," said Chheda, who ran Moews' 2014 campaign. "He's going to run as a Dem, but he thinks we should get to the place where we make this job nonpartisan."

Chheda and his boss, Thad Nation, had been laying the groundwork for a possible challenge to Clarke by setting up and secretly funding Renew Milwaukee, a nonprofit that paid for an anti-Clarke billboard, website (weneedanewsheriff.com) and Facebook page. Chheda and Nation's names do not appear on any of those entities.

Chheda said he and Nation personally paid for the anti-Clarke campaign. He said the firm lost money on the billboard and received donations in the "hundreds, not thousands" via the website and Facebook page.

Craig Peterson, an adviser to Clarke and a public relations official, said he finds it hard to believe that a client didn't pay for these expenses.

"We're not in the business of losing money," Peterson said of PR firms. Peterson said he may request an investigation by a special prosecutor to see if corporate money was used for political purposes with the anti-Clarke effort.

Chheda called Peterson's remarks "nonsensical."

"Sheriff Clarke wants an investigation of a Facebook page, a billboard that was up for two days, and a little petition, but he doesn't think four deaths in his jail should be investigated," Chheda said.

Contact Daniel Bice at (414) 224-2135 or dbice@jrn.com. Follow him on Twitter @ DanielBice or on Facebook at fb.me/daniel.bice.