Article Courtesy of The Miami Herald
By Marc Caputo
Published October 12, 2014
Charlie
Crist is the “zero-wage governor.” Rick Scott raised special-interest
“Rick Taxes.”
In a series of tense exchanges, the two leading candidates for governor
zinged each other early and often in their first televised debate
Friday, on Spanish-language Telemundo, and repeated the same message:
The other guy is worse than me.
From beginning to end, the governor and former governor said more about
each other and less about what each would specifically do if given four
more years in the governor’s office. Both candidates misled at times.
Outside, Libertarian Adrian Wyllie protested he was shut out of the
debate.
Clear differences emerged: Medicaid expansion, raising the minimum
Polls show a virtually tied race, with Crist gaining a little more
momentum in recent days. A high percentage of voters see both men in an
unfavorable light.
“Why do you think that voters have that negative impression of you two?”
moderator Marilys Llanos, a WSCV-Telemundo 51 political reporter, asked
Crist.
Crist blamed Scott.
“It’s unfortunate,” Crist said. “Sadly, my opponent began a barrage of
advertising in March of this year, almost all of it negative, and that’s
unfortunate.”
Scott, asked the same question, didn’t initially answer it and instead
discussed the jobs created since he assumed office in 2011. Llanos
pressed Scott for an answer — the first of three times the moderators
asked him to respond directly.
“My opponent is a mudslinger. And that’s what he does,” Scott said,
pointing out that Crist, when he was a Republican, had bashed Democrats
such as former President Bill Clinton.
In his response, Crist said Floridians “deserve to hear what we want to
do in a positive way.” Crist, who seldom spoke in positive terms after
that, then talked about raising the state’s $7.93 hourly minimum wage.
The issue is potentially potent. Polls indicate it’s popular with the
Florida electorate. A Latino Decisions survey of Florida Hispanic voters
released Thursday said they back it by an even greater degree, 64-15.
Scott pointed to a Congressional Budget Office report that indicated a
minimum-wage boost could be a job killer. Scott, who has recently
avoided commenting on the issue, was pressed for a straight answer.
“I don’t support losing those jobs, I don’t support raising the minimum
wage and losing those jobs,” Scott said. “I want more jobs and
better-paying jobs.”
Crist jumped at highlighting the issue, making sure that the
Spanish-speaking Telemundo audience would get the message: “This is a
clear distinction between the two of us.”
Scott followed by pointing to job losses under Crist: “Charlie should be
known as the zero wage governor, all right? 832,000 people had a job the
day Charlie took office. The day he left office, they made zero wages.”
Crist said the job losses were beyond his control.
“I was not personally responsible for the global economic meltdown,”
Crist said. “You’re not responsible for the national economic recovery.
The people are.”
If elected governor, Crist said, he would expand Medicaid, the
health-insurance program for low-income people. If need be, he said, he
would take executive action if the Legislature failed to act — something
that would likely get him sued. Medicaid expansion is also popular with
Hispanics, who are among the most eligible for the insurance in Florida.
“Rick Scott announced that he thought expanding Medicaid might be okay.
Then he heard from the Tea Party base and he kind of crawled back in and
wouldn’t talk about it anymore,” Crist said. “He talks about people who
talk about things and don’t do anything.”
Scott said Crist was the one who was all talk.
“First off, Charlie had the opportunity to do Medicaid expansion when he
was governor,” Scott said. “Obamacare passed. He didn’t. He sat on his
hands.”
Scott’s statement glossed over the history of Medicaid expansion. It was
supposed to happen automatically by January 2014 under Obamacare, which
passed March 23, 2010 – right in the middle of the last legislative
session Crist presided over as governor. At that time, Crist was a was a
Republican U.S. Senate candidate who opposed Obamacare. And he didn’t
ask the Legislature to instantly expand Medicaid eligibility. Two years
later, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled Medicaid expansion was optional.
Scott initially opposed expansion. Then he supported it. Then he backed
off it. Scott also signed legislation that kept insurance regulators
from temporarily reviewing Obamacare health-insurance rates. And he
signed other pro-industry legislation concerning property insurance.
But Crist falsely claimed Scott “actually signed a bill this year that
says the office of insurance regulation can’t regulate insurance.”
Crist, however, accurately noted that property-insurance rates were
lower on his watch than Scott’s.
Crist claimed people are paying more in “Rick Taxes” now through their
utility bills as well. But Scott pushed back by citing statistics that,
he said, showed rates have fallen. Scott also pointed out that Florida’s
Public Service Commission, which oversees utilities, has been stocked
with Crist appointees.
That portion of the debate began with a discussion about man-made
climate change. Crist said he believe in it; Scott didn’t give his
position and instead talked about environmental spending and policy.
The two differed on lifting the Cuba embargo. Scott said it would
empower the “terrorist” government on the communist island. Crist said
it hadn’t worked and that it was the “definition of insanity.”
Both candidates faulted the other for cutting school money. Scott
repeatedly mentioned Crist had not just raised taxes $2.2 billion but
had also signed legislation boosting higher-education tuition rates.
Scott stopped — but didn’t reverse outright — those tuition increases
when he signed legislation that gave in-state higher-education tuition
rates to so-called “dreamers” — undocumented immigrants who came to or
remain in this country illegally.
But when it came to another dreamer issue, about driver’s licenses,
Scott got his facts wrong.
The issue revolved around Scott’s 2013 veto of a dreamer driver’s
license bill that unanimously passed the Senate and sailed through the
House with only one No vote on the floor. Scott suggested that the bill
did nothing more for dreamers because “they had the same option to get
their driver’s license as they do today.” That’s not true. The bill,
HB235, added a specific provision that allowed people to get driver’s
licenses if they presented “A notice of the approval of an application
for Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals status issued by United
States Citizenship and Immigration Services.”
Scott’s veto message said dreamers could still get a driver’s license —
but only if they had a work permit. That can take extra time and money,
as much as $380.
Crist, too, tried to spin when asked about child deaths at the
Department of Children and Families.
“We didn’t cut funding,” Crist said. “We were facing a global economic
meltdown. We had to deal with tough issues during a tough time.”
But Crist and the Legislature did reduce spending at the agency. So did
Scott at one point.
A Miami Herald investigation showed that children in DCF care died under
both governors. More of the reported deaths happened under Crist; but
Scott’s administration changed reporting techniques and slow-walked
Herald public-records requests, clouding the picture on his watch.
Asked about a proposed constitutional amendment calling for medical
marijuana, Crist said he supported it. Scott, who pointed out he signed
a limited medical-marijuana bill, said he was opposed.
“I’ve watched family members deal with drug abuse,” Scott said. “So it
scares the living daylights out of me.”
On the subject of another constitutional amendment, a 2008
voter-approved law banning gay marriage, Scott wouldn’t say whether
same-sex people shouldn’t be allowed to get married.
Asked if voters, instead of the courts, should re-decide the issue,
Scott wouldn’t say. He did say, however, that he supports traditional
marriage and pointed out that Crist “led” the charge for the ban. Crist
didn’t do that. But Crist supported the gay-marriage prohibition; now he
opposes it.
Asked if voters should decide the issue again, Crist said: “The court is
going to decide it. I think the governor and I agree on that point.”
It was a rare moment of accord.
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