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Editorial: Some clarity amid the mud

 
The last of three debates between Florida’s candidates for governor turned out to be the most substantive one. Incumbent Republican Gov. Rick Scott and Democrat Charlie Crist both gave their best performances Tuesday night, and they each scored points with their political bases in the CNN debate. Yet their personal attacks may have further alienated voters who polls show hold neither candidate in high personal regard less than two weeks before Election Day.
The last of three debates between Florida’s candidates for governor turned out to be the most substantive one. Incumbent Republican Gov. Rick Scott and Democrat Charlie Crist both gave their best performances Tuesday night, and they each scored points with their political bases in the CNN debate. Yet their personal attacks may have further alienated voters who polls show hold neither candidate in high personal regard less than two weeks before Election Day.
Published Oct. 22, 2014

The last of three debates between Florida's candidates for governor turned out to be the best one, but it's a pretty low bar. Incumbent Republican Gov. Rick Scott and Democrat Charlie Crist both gave their strongest performances Tuesday night, and they each scored points with their political bases in the CNN debate. Yet their personal attacks may have further alienated voters who give both candidates low marks for honesty and integrity less than two weeks before Election Day.

Both candidates spent considerable time tearing down the other guy rather than making their best case that they should be the one to guide Florida toward a brighter future. Scott portrayed Crist as all talk and no action and repeated the unfounded allegation from a convicted Ponzi schemer that Crist sold judgeships as the Republican governor. Crist more accurately recounted how Scott ran the nation's largest hospital company that later paid a record fine for Medicare fraud — and that Scott once invoked his Fifth Amendment right not to incriminate himself 75 times in a deposition. Voters already have had their fill of these attacks in TV ads from both camps.

Scott spent too much time describing how he grew up in a poor family and arguing Crist came from a wealthy family as he grew up in St. Petersburg. The irony, of course, is that Scott's considerable wealth dwarfs anything Crist experienced — and it appears Scott underreports his wealth on financial disclosure reports filed with the state when those documents are compared to federal filings.

While Scott's rags-to-riches story is compelling, there is no evidence that life experience has made him more sensitive to the plight of middle class Floridians. As Crist pointed out, Scott has not lifted a finger as Duke Energy charges customers more than $3 billion for nuclear plants that are closed or will not be built. The Democrat also could have noted that Scott is pushing homeowners out of the state-run Citizens Property Insurance Corp. and into smaller, untested private insurers with higher rates.

In his robotic style, Scott continued to hold Crist responsible for losing 832,000 jobs during the economic recession. After Scott repeated the number several times, Crist finally noted that Scott's millions in promised tax breaks have produced few jobs. The Times/Herald capital bureau recently reported that through August only 2,430 jobs, or 5 percent, of the jobs promised in return for tax breaks have actually been created. The reality remains that governors have little control over the economy. Crist did not create the housing collapse and the economic meltdown, and Scott did not create the housing recovery or the tourism records that have helped lower the unemployment rate.

There were moments of clarity. Crist supports increasing the minimum wage. Scott does not and said "the private sector decides wages," which hardly sounds empathetic to the working Floridians he is trying to court. Crist supports the automatic restoration of some civil rights to felons; Scott does not and incorrectly suggested the restoration policy under Crist applied to those convicted of serious violent crimes. Crist supports comprehensive immigration reform that includes a path to citizenship for undocumented immigrants already in the country; Scott dodged the question about a path to citizenship despite being asked several times. But the incumbent governor neatly pivoted to take deserved credit for signing legislation that allows undocumented immigrants who graduate from Florida high schools to pay in-state tuition at colleges and universities.

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Scott absurdly claimed that he has done more on climate change than Crist, who signed executive orders as governor addressing the issue that have since been ignored or overturned. In fact, it is Scott who dodges questions about whether humans are contributing to climate change.

Both Scott and Crist supporters could find plenty to like in the last debate. For everyone else, it was more of the same mudslinging in a governor's race that turned sour months ago.