http://stream.publicbroadcasting.net/production/mp3/wfsu/local-wfsu-916770.mp3
Tallahassee, FL – A candidate forum for Florida's next attorney general threw off sparks Tuesday night over health care reform and immigration - issues on which the current AG has filed lawsuits.
Hosted by the Tallahassee Bar Association, the forum drew both Democratic candidates, Dave Aronberg and Dan Gelber, and one Republican, Holly Benson. Her GOP rival, Pam Bondi, was represented by Allison DeFoor, while Lt. Gov. Jeff Kottkamp's place was empty. Benson called federal health care reform "the 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," he said. "So whatever anybody says about everything working, it's not working in our state. We have the second-highest percentage of uninsured in the [country] 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.