Choice for attorney general not so easy

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© St. Petersburg Times
published October 18, 2002

Here is the question for Democrats in Florida's attorney general race:

Is any Democrat, no matter what, automatically better than the Republican?

Let's make the choice even more stark. Let's make the Republican a populist who has been on the right side of consumer and environmental battles with Florida's utilities.

Meanwhile, let's make the Democrat a lawyer who, while in the state Senate, tried to weaken state pollution laws in a way that could have benefitted his law firm's client.

Let's also say that the Democrat, who seeks to be the state's top law enforcement officer, and protector of our rights, describes the Fifth Amendment to the U.S. Constitution as "a tactic criminals take" in court.

If you still automatically snap your fingers and say, "Yes, I must vote for that Democrat, no matter what," then, well, congratulations. Your brainpower is freed up for other stuff. But there are some in your party who are more uncomfortable with this choice.

The Democrat in the race is Buddy Dyer, a state senator from Orlando. The Republican is Charlie Crist of St. Petersburg, the state's education commissioner.

Dyer and Crist debated Thursday at the Tiger Bay Club of Tampa. Crist opened and made nice at first. He said of Dyer: "While he is my opponent, he is not my enemy."

Then Dyer took the lectern and replied that Crist was close to a criminal, guilty of "tragic" silence on the topic of ethics, a man who "basically took the Fifth" in a recent ethics complaint against him. Dyer said that employing the Fifth Amendment is "a tactic criminals take" to avoid prosecution.

(It took a member of the audience to remind Dyer that the Bill of Rights protects the innocent as well. Grudgingly, Dyer backed off a little: "I agree that in a criminal context, taking the Fifth can be appropriate." But not for an elected official in an ethics complaint, he said. Okay, that's more fair.)

The subject of Dyer's attack: allegations that Crist had stonewalled on whether he used state-paid travel in combination with campaign fundraising. Neither Crist nor his campaign staffers remembered key dates and said they did not keep a record. That is incredibly lame. On another day I would cheerfully spend all my space making fun of such a bozo excuse. However, thanks to Dyer, that's not today.

Having been shot at, Crist fired back with this article that appeared in Monday's St. Petersburg Times by my colleague Alisa Ulferts:

Democratic attorney general candidate Buddy Dyer sponsored bills in 1996 and 1997 that could have helped a client of his law firm avoid state pollution penalties at a time when the company was being sued by the federal Environmental Protection Agency.

The state senator's bills would have protected industrial companies from some state fines and lawsuits if the firms voluntarily reported hazardous spills and developed plans to clean them up. Environmentalists opposed it, calling it the Polluter Privilege and Immunity Bill.

Dyer's response was that "probably not a bill that goes through the Legislature" doesn't affect one of his firm's clients. By the standard of Tallahassee ethics, that is supposed to be a defense. To me, it means he needs to choose between being a senator or a lawyer.

Nobody Thursday mentioned a previous case, so let's mention it now. In 2000, my colleague Lucy Morgan reported that Dyer pushed an amendment to help Florida Power & Light Co. and Florida Power Corp. fend off competition. At the same time, Dyer's wife and his wife's law firm were representing FP&L. So let's hope there are no other lawyers in his family. (In turn, Dyer should hope I run out of colleagues.)

Democrats have made fun of Crist for so long that it is a hard habit to break. They consider him to be a shallow grandstander. They fear he will be Jeb Bush 's shoeshine boy in the new Cabinet. But Crist's first priority has always been his populist standing with the public, not carrying anybody else's water.

The alternative to Crist is a Democrat who likes to brag about making the highest score on the Bar exam, and makes fun of Crist for needing more than one try to pass it. It makes me very nervous when politicians brag about how smart they are. It usually means they believe they can get away with more. So you can see how this is a complicated choice.

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