State: Friend of industry or consumer?

TALLAHASSEE -- Attorney general candidates Charlie Crist and Buddy Dyer vow to follow in the footsteps of Democratic Attorney General Bob Butterworth as an advocate for consumers.

Butterworth's office has gone after hurricane price-gougers, shady telemarketers and discriminatory clubs. His efforts have earned him a reputation as one of the most feared attorneys general in the country.

But big business appears to have less to fear from either Crist or Dyer than it did from Butterworth.

Both voted to repeal a law that allowed the state to sue Big Tobacco, the cornerstone of Butterworth's consumer legacy.

Both voted to limit lawsuits against companies whose products harm or maim consumers, though Dyer voted against the final version of the bill.

Both have backed business over consumers, but in different ways. Dyer pushed for a bill to help Florida's two biggest power companies fend off competition, while Crist sued one of them to get refunds for customers.

And Crist said he will settle an anti-trust lawsuit against Microsoft. Dyer would not.

Consumer advocates are watching closely.

"Clearly the stakes are very high for consumers, citizens and the environment," said Mark Ferrulo, director of the nonprofit Florida Public Interest Research Group.

Ann Allen said she wants an attorney general who is willing to incite consumers against legislation, such as Butterworth's call this year for e-mails telling Gov. Jeb Bush to veto a phone rate increase.

"I just think somebody has to be there for the people," said Allen, 55, a Gulfport jewelrymaker who supports Dyer. "I really feel that I need to be protected from Jebbie and the Legislature."

But John Elliot of Palm Harbor prefers an attorney general who is "less active."

"I think a lot of times the attorney general's office can go beyond what the Legislature wants," said Elliot, 62, a retired FBI agent. He favors Crist because he is less likely to "go off in wild directions."

The largest business lobby in the state, Associated Industries of Florida, ranked Dyer as Florida's most business-friendly senator in 1993, while Republican Crist was ranked second from the bottom. The gap between the two narrowed considerably the next year, but Dyer consistently outranked Crist during the six years they were in the Senate together.

Yet he has won the endorsement of the Florida Consumer Action Network.

Dyer said some of his pro-business votes reflect his concern with how lawmakers handled the bills and not the merits of the issues themselves.

"Ultimately, you have to look at the final vote and the final product," Dyer said.

Crist said the rankings by Associated Industries and the Florida Chamber of Commerce show that he is a better friend to consumers than Dyer and points to a lawsuit he filed against Florida Power in 1997 that helped get customers refunds.

The Republican Attorneys General Association, whose goal is to curtail the multistate lawsuits filed by Democratic attorneys general against business interests, backs Crist.

Crist said he welcomes the support. Some multi-state lawsuits may be necessary, but too many hurt the economy, he said. "You're going to shut down industry in this country, ultimately."

Florida's fight to get tobacco companies to pay for the health care of Medicaid patients made ill by cigarettes is considered Butterworth's greatest accomplishment. The case resulted in a $11.3-billion settlement for the state.

But not all lawmakers were happy with how he and then-Gov. Lawton Chiles handled the case. An amendment making it easier to sue tobacco companies was quietly tacked onto a Medicaid bill in the final hours of the 1994 legislative session, and few lawmakers understood what they had approved.

Lawmakers, including Dyer and Crist, repealed the law months after the state filed suit. Chiles vetoed the repeal.

Dyer had a change of heart and led the successful effort to sustain the veto.

Crist supported overriding Chiles' veto and as chairman of the Senate Ethics Committee held hearings on the state's handling of the case.

"I thought it was very unethical. We are a state that prides itself on open government," Crist said. "I thought it (the law) was too broadly defined," he added.

In 1998 and 1999, the Legislature passed a bill, dubbed "tort reform," capping court judgments against companies and dissolving their liability for products more than 12 years old. Chiles vetoed the bill in 1998 but it was approved in 1999 by Gov. Jeb Bush.

It was the biggest fight in the Legislature in those years, with business lobbyists swarming committee hearings. The bill was criticized for harming consumers at the expense of businesses.

"We didn't think the way to (deal with) frivolous lawsuits was to weaken protection for consumers," said Ferrulo.

Crist voted for the bill each time it appeared on the Senate floor in 1998. He wasn't in the Senate in 1999.

"I think there is a legitimate concern about frivolous lawsuits," Crist said. Finding the balance between keeping industry alive and protecting consumers' access to courts is tricky. "I think some (restrictions) are appropriate."

Dyer voted for early versions of the bill in 1998 and 1999, but opposed the final versions.

He said that there were some good parts of the bills, such as improved court procedures and limits on "frivolous lawsuits," but that the final version lumped all the issues together.

"If you wanted to vote for any of the good procedural stuff, you had to vote the bad stuff," Dyer said. Each time he voted for the bill, Dyer said, it was to allow a committee of lawmakers to iron out the differences.

"I said, "I'm holding my nose and voting for it today, but it has to come back better,' " Dyer said. When it didn't, he voted against it.

Dyer and Crist say these votes, while important, don't reveal the depth of their pro-consumer records.

Once he had a chance to review the law that made the state's tobacco lawsuit possible, Dyer said, he became its biggest champion. Both he and Crist have voted to allow patients to sue their HMOs under certain circumstances, and Crist has favored allowing HMO patients to have access to some specialists without going through the traditional gatekeeper process. And Crist counts his suit against Florida Power as his greatest action for consumers.

But they also have been friendly to big business. Dyer tried to help Florida's two biggest power companies, Florida Power Corp. and Florida Power & Light Co., in 2000 by prohibiting out-of-state companies from building merchant power plants in the state for two years. His wife worked for the latter company.

Dyer's amendment didn't pass.

And Crist was criticized for supporting Microsoft. Florida is one of nine states refusing to join the national settlement of the Microsoft Corp. antitrust case because they think Attorney General John Ashcroft has been too easy on the company, which was found guilty of anticompetitive behavior.

Crist said Microsoft has done a a lot for consumers.

"It seems to me we are suing a company that has revolutionized the way we communicate," Crist said.

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Lucy Morgan

From the Times state desk