AG candidates debate over credentials

State Sens. Dave Aronberg and Dan Gelber promised a friendly primary race for state attorney general, but the candidates clashed over differences on private school tuition vouchers, red-light cameras and other issues in their first debate Sunday.

The attorney general race, along with the governor's race, is one of two contests on which Democrats are pinning most of their hopes for a political resurgence in Florida next year.

While it has been overshadowed by races for governor and U.S. senator, the Aronberg-Gelber contest is giving Florida Democrats their best fight of the 2010 primary season.

The two South Florida state senators, neither well-known statewide but both well-liked in the party, are fighting a comparatively evenly-matched battle for the nomination.

"One of the things I hear a lot (from Democrats) is, 'We like both these guys,'" said University of South Florida political scientist Susan MacManus, the debate moderator, when she introduced them.

The chief battlegrounds in their race have been the Tampa Bay area and Broward County.

Broward, the state's biggest Democratic county, is no-man's land between Gelber's Miami-based Senate district and Aronberg's Palm Beach-based district.

With few major issue differences, the two focused much of the debate on credentials.

Gelber talked about his broader, longer law enforcement experience. "I like Dave, but I do believe experience matters," he said. "I think I have the resume for this job."

A University of Florida law graduate, Gelber, 48, was a federal prosecutor in Miami from 1986-94, then staff director of the U.S. Senate Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations, working mostly on terrorism, under former Sen. Sam Nunn, D-Ga.

He served four terms in the state House, as Democratic leader in 2006-08, and then was elected to the state Senate.

Aronberg, 39, of Greenacres, a former assistant attorney general, said the office "has been my life's ambition, my dream job," and he doesn't consider it a steppingstone.

"You don't have an eye on the governor's office, you don't have an eye on the U.S. Senate, you only want to be attorney general - that's what we need," he said.

He mentioned Attorney General Bill McCollum and Gov. Charlie Crist, who both have sought other offices after a single term as attorney general. But it was also a veiled shot at Gelber, who initially sought to run for the U.S. Senate next year.

Aronberg, a Harvard-trained lawyer in private practice, specialized in economic crimes in the attorney general's office from 1999-2002, taking time out as a White House Fellow and special assistant in the U.S. Treasury Department. He was elected to the state Senate in 2002.

In the debate, Gelber contended that "our voting records are different" on private school tuition vouchers, which Gelber opposes.

Aronberg responded that he also has consistently opposed creating or expanding vouchers.

However, Aronberg voted for a bill that allowed insurance companies to participate in a program that gives corporations tax credits for donations to voucher programs. He said the bill didn't allow any increase in the total amount of corporate tax money diverted to private schools.

Gelber said he favors use of cameras for traffic enforcement, but Aronberg said he has "some real civil liberties issues with cameras all over our streets," and that Republicans promoted red-light cameras for the profit in selling the equipment.

In the general election, the primary winner is likely to face Republican Lt. Gov. Jeff Kottkamp.

If the Democrats can beat him, it could matter in long-term control of state politics.

Of the four state officials elected statewide in Florida - the governor and three Cabinet members - "The governor is the most visible, but the attorney general is second most visible," said University of Central Florida political scientist Aubrey Jewett.

"For a decade or more now, the Democrats have been in the wilderness," Jewett said. "If Alex Sink could win the governorship and they could get the attorney general's spot, it would show that they're back."

Gelber and Aronberg are roughly tied in polls, but all show most Democrats as undecided.

In fundraising, Aronberg led slightly in the second quarter of the year, but Gelber raised $315,000 in the third quarter. Aronberg hasn't yet announced a third-quarter figure.

The two have battled for endorsements from party leaders as a way to make themselves better known statewide. Gelber appears to be leading in that battle, though both have recruited prominent supporters.

In Hillsborough County, Aronberg has support from Clerk of Court Pat Frank and former Mayor Sandy Freedman. Gelber has backing from Mayor Pam Iorio, former U.S. Rep. Jim Davis and several legislators.

"We've looked at the issues closely, and we'd be satisfied with either one of them," said Sally Phillips, head of the party's Hillsborough gay-lesbian caucus. "The bottom line is we need a Democrat - we'll look at electability."