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Sink, Scott Battle Battle Over Ethics, Economy In Last Debate

Democrat Alex Sink and Republican Rick Scott traded blistering shots Monday for an hour over each other’s ethics, the economy, taxes and immigration in the last of two statewide television debates in a governor’s race polls show remains a toss-up a week before Election Day.

Almost as soon as CNN host John King introduced the candidates, the pair opened fire – with Scott warning that Sink’s plans for public employees, education and other issues would force a $12.5 billion boost in state spending. Sink pushed back, denying Scott’s charge and saying her opponent could not be trusted to run state government.

The sniping proved personal – as well as political – and ranged across a battered landscape spanning each contender’s business background, their investments, the health of the state’s pension fund, and newspaper endorsements, which Sink pointed out she’s outdueled Scott,16-0.

“You’ve spent a lifetime reinventing the truth,” Sink told Scott.

Scott: “You don’t care about seniors. Is that the deal?”

Sink ridiculed Scott as “a corporate raider.” Scott re-echoed his accusation that Sink, the state’s chief financial officer, is a “failed fiscal watchdog.”

Along the way Sink and Scott also stumbled: With both getting a question about the state’s $7.25 hourly minimum wage wrong. Scott confidently said the rate was $7.55 per-hour, and Sink chimed in, “Yeah, he’s right.” But he was wrong.

While the debate at Tampa’s University of South Florida covered mostly familiar ground, the candidates divided sharply on prospects of bringing a Nebraska-style abortion law to Florida – with Scott saying he would back such legislation, which effectively bans most abortions over 20 weeks of pregnancy, with Sink opposed.

Scott also renewed his support for cracking down on illegal immigration, backing legislation similar to that in Arizona that would empower local law enforcement to enforce federal laws – a position Sink resists.

The poll-tracking website Real Clear Politics gives Scott an average 1.6 percent edge in surveys taken the past week – an advantage still within the margin-of-error in most polls. The same site shows President Obama drawing slightly higher disapproval ratings, compared to the percentage of Americans who approve of his job performance, providing Scott with a steady line of attack against Sink.

“My opponent is an Obama liberal,” Scott said, rejecting Sink’s claim that he would eliminate the state’s development oversight agency, the Department of Community Affairs. “She thinks people in Tallahassee should tell people exactly what they ought to do.”

But in distancing herself from Obama on the administration’s handling of the Gulf oil spill, federal spending policies and the health care overhaul, Sink said Scott was trying to cover up his lack of understanding of state government and – even Florida.

“He doesn’t know a thing about me. He also doesn’t know much about Florida,” Sink said of her opponent, a first-time candidate who moved to the state from Connecticut seven years ago. “He hasn’t been here long enough to know much about Florida. But what’s important is character and integrity.”

She also accused Scott of trying to reduce the race to “nine or 10 soundbites.”

The two candidates showed little warmth toward each other. Sink grew visibly tight-lipped at times during the freewheeling exchanges with Scott, while he rolled his eyes and sought to dismiss her attempts to distance herself from the state’s $2.5 billion budget shortfall, loss of 800,000 jobs over the past four years, and pension fund declines amid the recession.

At debate’s end, Sink also got reined-in by King, the host, when she tried to expand on the newspaper endorsements she’d received. “You can run a campaign ad about that,” King broke in. “We don’t have time.”

Sink, though, also tried to put her role as the state’s elected chief financial officer in perspective – pointing out that as a Democrat, she’s outgunned by ruling Republicans on most policy issues.

“Let me clarify who has been in charge in Tallahassee,” Sink said. “It’s been one party, Rick Scott’s party. It’s been Tallahassee insiders who are now supporting his campaign for governor. So, it’s been the governor and a Republican-controlled Legislature in charge.”

Scott, who has shunned editorial boards, touted his endorsements from the National Federation of Independent Business and the Florida Chamber of Commerce, saying the governor’s race is about which candidate can best create jobs.

Scott, a former health care executive whose net worth is $218 million, put another $3.6 million of his own money into his campaign last week – bringing his total investment to $60 million – by far the bulk of his spending. Sink has collected $15.4 million in donor cash and in-kind support from the Florida Democratic Party, and has $1.8 million cash left on-hand heading into the freewheeling campaign’s final week.

But Scott’s business background has also given Sink plenty of ammunition. Scott’s former company, hospital chain Columbia/HCA, paid a record $1.7 billion in fines and settlements to resolve Medicaid and Medicare fraud charges three years after he left the company.

He also invoked his Fifth Amendment right against self-incrimination 75 times during a deposition taken ten years ago involving the company, and has refused to make public a deposition he gave six days before entering the governor’s race in a lawsuit involving a health-clinic company he owns.

Under questioning from moderator King, Scott declined to shed any more light Monday.

“All this comes up because my opponent doesn’t have a plan, she’s never created a job in her life, never put up her own money, put her money at risk, ” Scott said. “To change the debate, she just attacks.”

The debate themes have already played out it an avalanche of television advertising likely only to accelerate in the campaign’s closing days. Scott will barnstorm the state by bus and jet beginning Tuesday in a drive carrying him through Election Day, while Sink plans a similar homestretch push.

Asked about any regrets, neither candidate probed deeply.

“I don’t think about the past so much,” Sink said.

Responded Scott, “I would’ve had more kids. I love my daughters,” said the candidate, who has two adult daughters.

By The News Service Florida