Attorney General Candidates Debate in Tallahassee Forum
Wednesday, August 4, 2010
By: Margie Menzel

August 4, 2010 - Sparks flew at a candidate forum for Florida's attorney general candidates Tuesday night. The A.G. hopefuls traded jabs over health care reform and immigration, issues on which current Attorney General Bill McCollum, has filed lawsuits.

 Click here to listen to story.

Hosted by the Tallahassee Bar Association, the forum drew both Democratic candidates, State Senators Dave Aronberg and Dan Gelber and one Republican, former Department of Business and Professional Regulation Secretary Holly Benson. 
Her GOP rival, Hillsborough County Prosecutor Pam Bondi, was represented by Allison DeFoor. Lt. Gov. Jeff Kottkamp’s place was empty. 

Benson called federal health care reform a slippery slope towards socialized medicine.  “You all know that immediately following the passage of this health care reform, General  McCollum went to the courthouse in my hometown of Pensacola and filed a lawsuit against  this health care reform.” Benson said, “We must win, and I am ready.”
Gelber, however, called that lawsuit “frivolous” and said its purpose was political gain. “The truth of the matter is Florida has 4 million people without health care. So whatever anybody says about everything working, it’s not working in our state.” Gelber continued, “We have the second-highest percentage of uninsured in the state and 800,000 of them are children who have to be so sick they go to an emergency room for treatment. It is immoral.”

On immigration, Benson said she supports Arizona-style get tough legislation.  Aronberg and Gelber said that would lead to racial profiling with Aronberg adding that law enforcement officers don’t like the measure because it would divert them from community policing.