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ANITA KUMARPeter Deutsch and Betty Castor spar as the campaign gets down to the wire.
TAMPA - For months, the three major Democratic U.S. Senate candidates disagreed on little and played nice in public.
That ended Thursday night.
U.S. Rep. Peter Deutsch aggressively challenged front-runner Betty Castor at every turn in the last statewide televised debate before Tuesday's primary.
Deutsch accused Castor of hiding her opposition to partial-birth abortion. He accused her of not being a strong enough supporter of Israel.
And he angrily accused Castor, former president of the University of South Florida, of falsely claiming that she suspended former professor Sami Al-Arian when he was under investigation for allegedly raising money for terrorists and not publicly condemning him.
"She needs to answer the questions," Deutsch said. "If she doesn't answer, we're going to have a hard time holding the seat if she is the nominee.
"There are lots of things she could have done that she did not do."
Moderator Rob Lorei repeatedly cut off Deutsch for speaking longer than his one-minute limit or for interrupting Castor.
"Betty, you still haven't spoken up," Deutsch said. "You've never condemned . . . "
"Absolutely, I have . . . " Castor responded.
"When, Betty?" Deutsch asked, his voice rising. "You have never condemned him, Betty. Ever. Ever, Betty."
Castor remained calm, smiling frequently and questioning Deutsch on whether he could adapt to the collegial atmosphere of the Senate.
"I'm not running for United States Senate to win Miss Congeniality," Deutsch said.
"There's no doubt about that," Castor said with a smile.
Miami-Dade Mayor Alex Penelas, meanwhile, tried to broker peace between Castor and Deutsch.
"We need to stop this bickering between Betty and Peter," Penelas said. "We've got an hour to debate the important issues facing America and Florida. . . . Right now, a lot of people are turning the TV off because we're talking about Sami Al-Arian. I don't think a lot of people care."
Castor has repeatedly defended her handling of Al-Arian. She put him on paid administrative leave for two years - not suspension, as she contended - and hired a lawyer to look into allegations against him. He was indicted last year and fired by Castor's successor, Judy Genshaft.
Deutsch contended that the issue would haunt Castor if she is the party's nominee, but she challenged the Republicans to debate the issue. Al-Arian campaigned for President Bush in 2000, posed for a photo with him at Plant City's Strawberry Festival in March of that year and said publicly that Muslims in Florida may have tipped the close presidential election to Bush.
Penelas asked Castor and Deutsch whether they would stop airing critical TV ads about each other. Deutsch refused. "I don't find that ad critical," he said, referring to an ad about Al-Arian. "Because if you read the words, the ad is factual."
Castor agreed to Penelas' proposal, with a catch: "I will if Peter will."
Castor, a former state education commissioner, has led every poll for the past year, and Thursday's debate was Deutsch's last chance to cut into her lead. It was broadcast live on a dozen public television stations and several public radio stations around Florida. It will be rebroadcast Sunday at 5 p.m.
Hollywood real estate broker Bernard Klein, the fourth Democratic candidate, was excluded from statewide TV debates because of his poor showing in polls.
Castor's main goal Thursday was to not make an embarrassing mistake and maintain her demeanor as the steady successor to retiring Democratic Sen. Bob Graham. Deutsch, however, is scrambling to catch up and using aggressive tactics to raise doubts about Castor's ability to win in November.
"He was obviously uptight tonight," Castor said of Deutsch afterward. "You have to be reasonable, calm and collected."
"That is Congressman Deutsch's personality," Castor said. "He thinks that is a winning personality, and I don't."
On Thursday night, the three Democrats continued to agree on many of the substantive issues important to Democratic voters.
They oppose a constitutional ban on gay marriages, but support civil unions. They support federal funding of stem cell research. They oppose tax breaks for the rich. They would allow senior citizens to buy prescription drugs from other countries.
All three support abortion rights, but Deutsch said he is the only candidate with "a 100 percent pro-choice record." Castor and Penelas say they oppose partial-birth abortion unless the mother's health or safety is at risk.
Penelas argues that he is the only candidate with "the courage to tell President Bush that he was wrong" on Iraq and call for a deadline, probably by the end of 2005, to withdraw troops.
Castor and Deutsch support keeping troops in Iraq until the country is rebuilt.
"The reality is that ignoring a problem doesn't make it go away," Deutsch said to Penelas.
Lorei asked Deutsch about the more the $40,000 he raised from pharmaceutical companies. Deutsch said campaign contributions from drug companies do not influence his policies and that he supports them only if it's the right thing to do.
"I was on the side of the angels on this one," he said.
Castor and Penelas said they won't take money from drugmakers and have called on Deutsch to do the same.
"I have tried in my campaign to not take any money from drug companies," Castor said. "I believe one of the reasons medical costs are so high is the cost of pharmaceuticals."
"I made a pledge not to accept campaign contributions from pharmaceuticals," Penelas said. "Others have chosen not to do so."
Earlier Thursday, Deutsch complained that seniors on Florida's east coast were receiving phone calls from a group calling itself the Alliance to Protect Seniors that told them that Deutsch can't be trusted to protect seniors.
Deutsch called it "a travesty, that there are people that would stoop this low of attempting to falsely trick senior citizens by telling them lies."
"My 22-year record of public service shows that I always have and will continue to support issues that affect seniors," he said.
Sandra Rosalia, a 65-year-old senior from Stuart who got the call, asked the company who had paid for it. It would not tell.
"This dirty campaigning is really getting on everyone's nerves," said Rosalia, who contacted Deutsch's office. At the end of the call, seniors were told to call Deutsch's congressional office in Pembroke Pines - only the callers were giving out the wrong number.
Times staff writers David Karp, Carrie Johnson and Lucy Morgan and researcher Kitty Bennett contributed to this report.