State: It's no more Mr. Nice Guy in attorney general debate

TAMPA -- For their final scheduled debate, attorney general candidates Buddy Dyer and Charlie Crist could have talked about important issues facing the state.

Instead, they spent most of the hourlong Tiger Club debate accusing each other of ethical and intelligence lapses, each waving copies of newspaper articles about the other.

It was a switch from the Tiger Bay Club debate in St. Petersburg a month ago, when the two were so civil to each other the moderator referred to the race as "Mr. Nice Guy vs. Mr. Nice Guy."

Now the election is less than three weeks away and polls show the race between these two former state Senate colleagues is too close too call.

Democrat Dyer struck first, telling the audience that Republican Crist refused to answer questions while under investigation by state ethics officials. Crist was cleared of wrongdoing, but Dyer still brought up accusations that Crist mixed state and campaign travel.

"I really don't think that conduct is worthy of you, Charlie, and it's certainly not worthy of the office you are seeking," Dyer said. Refusing to answer questions is a "tactic that criminals take," Dyer said.

Crist fired back, holding up a St. Petersburg Times article about legislation Dyer sponsored several years ago that would have helped a client of his law firm avoid state pollution penalties while the company was facing a federal lawsuit for inaccurately reporting the toxins it released in Florida's air.

"I don't think it's in your purview to lecture me on ethics," Crist said.

From there, Dyer and Crist alternately accused each other of lacking experience, intelligence, ethnic sensitivity and integrity.

Dyer noted that, unlike his opponent, he passed the Florida Bar exam on his first try. Crist failed it twice before passing. And Dyer said with a law firm as large as his, it's hard to avoid bills that could affect his firm's clients.

Crist noted that Dyer has poked fun of his dark skin tone, "if you can believe that in 2002," said Crist, the grandson of Greek immigrants. Dyer had previously referred to Crist as "the cellophane-wrapped suntan guy."

Dyer also said Crist sponsored a bill to toughen penalties for state employees who use their office to benefit themselves personally.

If that bill had passed, Dyer told Crist, "you wouldn't just be charged with an ethics complaint, you'd be charged with a third-degree felony."

But Crist insisted he did nothing wrong, that he didn't refuse to answer questions and that the state Ethics Commission didn't pursue the complaint.

"We didn't do anything wrong, so it's hard to elaborate on that," Crist said.

As they waited for Tiger Bay Club members to eat lunches before the debate, Crist and Dyer sat quietly beside each other on the dais, barely speaking. A quick handshake followed the debate .

Bob Samuels said neither candidate satisfied him when he asked what they would do to ensure people are not racially discriminated against by businesses in the state. Outgoing Attorney General Bob Butterworth became involved in a case last year when a Maryland lawmaker was denied entrance to a bar in Perry because he is black.

Dyer said the state's discrimination laws have no teeth and he wants to beef up the state's office of civil rights. Crist noted he has supported survivors of the 1923 Rosewood massacre.

But Samuels, chairman of the Florida Prostate Cancer Network, wasn't satisfied.

"I would think they would want to attack that immediately" instead of giving historical answers, Samuels said.

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Lucy Morgan

From the Times state desk