Sparks fly as Nelson, Scott debate

Republican Gov. Rick Scott repeatedly accused three-term Democratic Sen. Bill Nelson of being a do-nothing incumbent while Nelson repeatedly accused Scott of dishonesty on Tuesday during the first face-to-face debate in their nationally watched U.S. Senate race.

They clashed on Brett Kavanaugh’s nomination to the U.S. Supreme Court, the toxic algae and red tide problems plaguing Florida’s coastal and inland waters and other issues during a one-hour meeting at the studio of Spanish-language Telemundo 51. Each sprinkled a few sentences of Spanish into their remarks, but they mainly debated in English for a broadcast that was to air Tuesday evening with Spanish translation.

Scott frequently mentioned Nelson’s more than 40 years in a variety of public offices and at least twice suggested the 76-year-old senator was “confused.”

Nelson said the election is about “trust and integrity” and at one point told Scott: “Governor, you just can’t tell the truth.”

Nelson, who announced last week he would vote against Kavanaugh, said in the debate he believes Christine Blasey Ford, who accused Kavanaugh of sexually assaulting her when she and Kavanaugh were teenagers in 1982.

“The testimony of Dr. Ford was quite compelling. As a matter of fact, it was real and she was expressing for millions of women in this country the #MeToo, that sexual assault has happened to them,” Nelson said.

Scott said he found both Ford and Kavanaugh “convincing” and would support Kavanaugh based on his record as a judge. He accused Nelson of selective support for the #MeToo movement.

Scott said Nelson never criticized U.S. Rep. Alcee Hastings, D-Delray Beach, who was accused of sexual harassment by a former staffer on the congressional Helsinki Commission. Hastings denied wrongdoing and a judge dismissed the claims against him, but not those against the commission. The House eventually paid his accuser a $220,000 settlement that Hastings said he was unaware of. Scott also faulted Nelson for not criticizing U.S. Rep. Keith Ellison, D-Minn., who has been accused of domestic abuse by a former girlfriend.

“Sen. Nelson is a partisan politician that all he does is attack Republicans and defend Democrats,” Scott said.

Nelson served in the state House from 1972 to 1978 and in the U.S. House from 1979 to 1991, leaving office to pursue an unsuccessful 1990 bid for the Democratic gubernatorial nomination. He was elected to the now-defunct office of state treasurer in 1994, leaving that post when he won the first of three elections to the U.S. Senate in 2000.

When Nelson said he supported comprehensive immigration reform, Scott replied that “my opponent has had 40 years to do something on immigration and he’s absolutely done nothing.”

On the economy, Nelson said Scott has presided over a low-wage economy in Florida. Nelson called for raising the federal minimum wage, currently $7.25 an hour, to $12 or $15 an hour.

“I think this is an example of why we need term limits,” Scott replied. “Here’s an individual who’s had 40 years to do something, to try to improve the economy. But the things he would do would actually hurt the economy. It’s exactly what Barack Obama was doing — higher taxes and more regulations.”

When Nelson said he favored tighter gun controls and a ban on assault weapons, Scott pointed to the more modest gun safety measures he signed after the Feb. 14 massacre at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland and said Nelson “has never gotten anything done with school safety.”

“The governor keeps coming out with one whopper after another. Apparently, you never got your mouth washed out with soap after telling a lie because you keep on going on, on every part of my record,” Nelson said at one point, according to a transcript released Tuesday afternoon by Telemundo.

The two opponents also sparred over Puerto Rico.

Both campaigns have attempted to endear their candidates to the more than 1 million Puerto Ricans — and up to 50,000 more who moved here after Hurricane Maria — who call Florida home.

The day before the debate, Nelson secured the endorsement of Puerto Rico Gov. Ricardo Rosselló, despite Scott’s repeated trips to the U.S. territory following last year’s massive storm, which wiped out electricity island-wide and resulted in 3,000 deaths. President Donald Trump has also been widely disparaged for accusing Democrats of inflating the number of fatalities.

“The president has treated its citizens as second-class citizens,” Nelson said.

“Now, my opponent has said when down there in Puerto Rico, what would you have done differently? And he said, quote, I would not have done anything differently. I think that pretty well tells you about the treatment of the people from Puerto Rico,” Nelson said.

Scott countered that he wanted “to do everything I can to help Puerto Ricans” after the storm.

“It was never about politics. It was about helping our fellow citizens,” he said, rattling off a list of the aid the state provided to the island and to migrants who fled to Florida.

In front of the Hispanic debate audience, Scott, who has close ties to Trump, sought to separate himself from the president on the issue of children whose parents illegally brought them into the country.

Scott again blamed Nelson for failing to address the problem in Washington, calling it “remarkable” that the senator would “talk about doing something.”

“He’s been there when his party controlled both chambers and the White House, and he did nothing,” Scott said.

The two candidates also pointed the finger at each other over recent outbreaks of toxic algae and red tide that are impacting waterways and beaches on both coasts.

“Red tide is something that's naturally occurring. I've declared a state of emergency,” Scott said, saying the state has sent “millions” of dollars to the counties to deal with the crisis and committed $17 million for research projects.

But he blamed Nelson for the toxic algae outbreak, saying it was linked to the failure to improve the Herbert Hoover Dike around Lake Okeechobee.

“He has never done anything to get us the money to fix the dike at Lake Okeechobee, which is a 100 percent federal project,” Scott said.

Nelson called that “a whopper,” pointing to major cuts in environmental funding by Scott that affected water management districts and eliminated the Department of Community Affairs.

During his eight years as governor, Scott has “systematically disassembled the environmental agencies of this state,” Nelson said.

“You see the result. You put pollution in the water, it will grow the algae in the heat of summer. And then when that algae goes down the rivers and mixes with a bacteria known as red tide, it supercharges that,” he said.

But Scott said environmental funding has increased during his tenure, including a state commitment to spend $200 million a year on Everglades restoration. He also said he worked with Trump to secure funding for the dike repairs, which he said would be completed in 2022.

This report includes material from the News Service of Florida.