By Lloyd Dunkelberger
Ledger Tallahassee Bureau
Published: Tuesday, August 17, 2010 at 11:06 p.m.
Last Modified: Tuesday, August 17, 2010 at 11:06 p.m.
TALLAHASSEE | Floridians face a pivotal political question next week that may be buried under the big-money glitz of the primary contests for governor and U.S. Senate.
Republican and Democratic voters must decide Tuesday who their parties will nominate for the state's top legal office. The next attorney general will play a large role in the state government during the next four years, including whether to continue legal challenges involving the new federal health care law and immigration legislation.
The race for the attorney general nomination - which features a field of two state senators, a former state agency head, a lieutenant governor and a state prosecutor - is the deepest and most competitive in this year's state election.
In November, voters will have a stark contrast between the final two candidates for the state Cabinet office. The Republicans want to continue the fight against "Obamacare" and in support of Arizona's immigration law, while the Democrats oppose those efforts.
But next week, Democrats and Republicans may have more difficulty trying to separate the candidates seeking their party's backing.
Democratic race: Candidates eye new course
In the Democratic primary, one candidate is touting his courtroom experience and the other is criticizing his opponent for his ties to the oil company BP. Otherwise, there are few major policy differences between state Sens. Dave Aronberg of Greenacres and Dan Gelber of Miami Beach.
Both would take the job of the state's top legal officer in a different direction than current Attorney General Bill McCollum, a Republican running for governor.
Aronberg and Gelber would drop out of the federal lawsuit McCollum initiated to challenge President Barack Obama's health care law that requires individuals to carry health insurance or to face penalties.
They oppose supporting any effort to defend Arizona's immigration law against a federal challenge. And they oppose Florida's law that makes it the only state to prohibit same-sex couples from adopting children.
Both pledge to step up efforts by the office to protect consumers, to go after public corruption, to fight Medicaid fraud and to support civil rights issues. Both promise to "depoliticize" the office, which oversees more than 400 lawyers.
While Gelber and Aronberg generally agree on issues, they have diverged in their arguments over which candidate would be better able to carry out those duties.
With nearly a decade of experience as a federal prosecutor and as a former counsel to a U.S. Senate committee that handles counterterrorism issues, Gelber said his lengthy legal résumé and trial court experience - where he prosecuted cases ranging from public corruption to drugs - make him a stronger contender.
Aronberg counters that he is the only candidate who has actually worked in the AG's office, having served two years as an assistant attorney general under Bob Butterworth.
Aronberg also criticizes Gelber for jumping into the Cabinet race after abandoning a bid for the U.S. Senate last year. Aronberg said he would not use the office as a "stepping stone" to some other office.
The most bitter clash between the two philosophically aligned Democrats is Aronberg's criticism of Gelber for having worked for a law firm that represents BP, the company responsible for the Gulf of Mexico oil spill.
Gelber said there is no conflict because he resigned from the firm, never handled any BP work and was never a firm partner who could have benefited from the BP payments.
Aronberg, 39, was elected to the state Senate in 2002. Now working in a private law firm, he spent two years in the Attorney General's Office, working in the economic crimes division.
Gelber, 49, spent eight years working as a federal prosecutor in Miami and also served in the Florida House, where he became the leader of the House Democrats. In 2008, he won election to the state Senate.
Republican race: Three vie for nomination
In the Republican primary, while the candidates are united behind a conservative agenda, one contender is touting the fact that she is not a "career" politician, while her two opponents have served in the Legislature and the executive branch in Tallahassee.
Each brings certain strengths to the race.
Pam Bondi, 44, a veteran state prosecutor from Tampa, cites the 18 years she has spent in courtrooms, prosecuting cases ranging from murder to fraud. Noting she has never held a political office before, she calls herself a "hands-on prosecutor" who would best be able to fill the attorney general's role as the state's chief legal defender.
Holly Benson, 39, a former state House member from Pensacola, is playing up her executive experience, noting she has run two major state agencies, including the state Agency for Health Care Administration, which oversees Medicaid, one of the largest portions of the state budget.
With a background in municipal bond finance, Benson said her management experience will help her lead a large legal office that has many duties ranging from protecting consumers to investigating Medicaid fraud to defending death penalty cases.
Lt. Gov. Jeff Kottkamp, 49, a former state House member from Cape Coral, is the only contender who has held a statewide office. But Kottkamp, who was elected to office along with Gov. Charlie Crist in 2006, has had to distance himself from Crist, who became a political pariah among many GOP members when he bolted from the party in April to remain in contention in the U.S. Senate race.
In the closely fought primary, Kottkamp is playing up his backing from social conservatives, although all three candidates oppose abortion rights and support the state's current effort to defend a law banning adoption by gay couples.
All three candidates support McCollum's decision to join Arizona in defending a new immigration law that is being challenged by the federal government.
"If the federal government is not willing to enforce immigration laws, then the states must act," Bondi said.
The GOP candidates also suggest they may look at other litigation that could force the federal government to pay Florida to cover the expenses of illegal immigrants who end up in state schools, hospitals or jails.
The GOP candidates are using the challenge of the federal health care law - which they call "Obamacare" - as a rallying cry for their campaigns. They each contend the federal government is overstepping the constitution in trying to mandate health care coverage for individuals and they raise the question of the cost of the mandate.
This story appeared in print on page A1
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