State: Candidates attack Bush, not each other

PALM BEACH GARDENS -- In the lone debate before the Sept. 10 primary election, the Democratic Party's three candidates for governor spoke Tuesday night with one voice.

Instead of trying to distinguish themselves for undecided Democrats, Janet Reno and Bill McBride spent the hourlong televised debate criticizing Republican Gov. Jeb Bush as miserable for education, cold-hearted with child welfare and dangerous to the environment.

Only state Sen. Daryl Jones of Miami, who trails so far behind Reno and McBride that he originally wasn't invited, dared to suggest that he is the Democrats' best hope. He said after 12 years in the Legislature he knows how state government works, and he spent much of the night citing statistics about state programs.

Otherwise, the Democrats focused their attacks on the elephant not in the room: Bush, who holds a formidable lead in fundraising and in polls.

"This campaign is about the current governor and about the need to have a new vision, and someone who cares about the state," McBride said. "It's very important that we stay together on one message. . . .

"Voters are smart. They'll decide which one of us is best equipped to take on Jeb Bush in the fall."

Reno readily agreed.

"I think together we can take whoever the nominee is, we can take the Democratic Party forward, invigorate it, move it ahead," she said.

The candidates particularly focused on education, which polls show is voters' top priority. All three said Bush has erred by making the Florida Comprehensive Assessment Test, the FCAT, the centerpiece of his education program.

"We need some diagnostic test to let parents and students know where they stand," McBride said, "but to use this test to grade schools is absurd."

Reno strongly criticized Bush for promoting the use of vouchers to send students in failing public schools to private schools.

"The governor is talking about vouchers -- taking public money from public schools and putting it in private schools," she said. "That is wrong."

Reno also touted her prescription drug plan, the most specific Democrats have offered, to pool senior citizens, state employees and Medicaid recipients into one giant buying cooperative to negotiate lower prices from drug companies.

Seniors shouldn't have to choose between taking medication and paying the electric bill, she said. "This governor just doesn't get it," Reno said. "Democrats do."

The much-anticipated debate took place in a soldout, 700-seat auditorium at Palm Beach Community College. It was sponsored by the Forum Club of the Palm Beaches, akin to an upscale Tiger Bay Club, and broadcast live statewide on NBC affiliates. Technical difficulties kept it off the air in Tallahassee, where Bush had said earlier in the day he didn't plan to watch.

The debate offered Democrats their only chance to compare their candidates side-by-side. But the format virtually ensured little drama, and the candidates were unwilling to challenge one another. They were asked 11 questions by a panel consisting of former U.S. Rep. Harry Johnston, the forum club's president, and three reporters.

Each candidate had one minute to respond to each question. They were not allowed to address each other directly. It was as if each was on stage alone, happy for the chance to complain about Bush and air their views, for free, to a statewide TV audience.

Afterward, Republicans sounded more dismissive than aggrieved.

"What we heard tonight is multibillion dollars in increased spending in Florida, without any connection to reality or specificity whatsoever," Lt. Gov. Frank Brogan said.

"I think the people of the state deserve something better than that, especially from people who would ask to be governor."

All three said teachers should be paid more. Each said they support the constitutional amendment to limit class size, which Bush opposes as too expensive.

McBride and Jones joined Reno in opposing using public money as tuition vouchers to send children in failing public schools to private schools.

All three criticized Bush for hiring Jerry Regier, who headed the social services agency in Oklahoma, as the secretary of the troubled Department of Children and Families.

Regier has been criticized for his published views on spanking children and the role of women in society.

The Democrats said they do not oppose Regier's religious beliefs but the haste in which he was hired.

One significant difference emerged during the debate. Asked to pick the most pressing environmental issue in the state, Reno and Jones cited protecting the water supply and restoring the Everglades. McBride cited growth management.

The candidates disagreed quietly on how they would pay for the improvements they touted. McBride has called for spending $1-billion more on education, about half of which would come from a 50-cent-per-pack cigarette tax. He mentioned the money, but not the tax, Tuesday night.

"We've been cutting and cutting and cutting," McBride said. "Frankly, I think the people of Florida want to start investing again."

Reno said she could not advocate tax increases until she could ensure voters their money was not being wasted in Tallahassee. "You've got to make sure that they feel the system is fair as it is," she said.

Jones said no new taxes should be needed. The state's revenue will increase if its economy grows, he said. Jones promised to make that happen by improving education and infrastructure to attract high-tech, high-paying companies.

McBride, who has been trailing Reno in polls, needed a strong showing to cast himself as a clearly better alternative. He offered the only light-hearted moment of the evening, smiling and joking after answering whether he would endorse one of the other Democrats as the nominee and whether he would be willing to consider Reno or Jones as his running mate if he won.

"Yes and yes," McBride said in the shortest of answers. "Do I get the time back later on?"

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Lucy Morgan

From the Times state desk