Crist, Fried argue over who can best take on DeSantis

Charlie Crist and Nikki Fried largely agree on many issues. Their biggest point of contention is each other.

As Crist, a member of Congress from St. Petersburg, and Agriculture Commissioner Fried battle in the Florida Democratic gubernatorial primary on Aug. 23, each says he or she is better equipped to defeat Republican Gov. Ron DeSantis in November.

And each portrays the other as someone who would lose to the incumbent governor.

Crist and Fried have laid out their proposals on their campaign websites and in interviews. Both have eviscerated DeSantis, with Crist saying DeSantis was a would-be “dictator” who has “torn Florida apart.” Fried says he’s “taken away our freedoms.”

They have assailed DeSantis’ culture war policies, including the so-called “don’t say gay” law and transgender sports bans, abortion rights and election restrictions. But they’ve also portrayed DeSantis as ignoring the high cost of living in Florida.

Fried’s campaign has insisted she would not run a scorched earth campaign against Crist, but that’s increasingly what she has been doing. She’s attacked Crist for his Republican past, including his time as governor from 2007-11, and has said he couldn’t beat DeSantis because of it.

“For most of his life, he was a Republican,” Fried said on The Luke Show with rapper Uncle Luke in a clip shared by her campaign. “... He has an atrocious record.”

At the July 21 debate, she bundled much of her complaints about DeSantis with criticism of Crist’s prior positions. And after telling both the Tampa Bay Times and Orlando Sentinel editorial boards that she believed Crist couldn’t win, she refused to say at the debate whether she would immediately endorse Crist after he pledged to endorse her if he lost the primary.

“What we’re talking about winning the election, and winning in November,” Crist said. “I’ve raised over $12 million in this campaign. .... I’m the only candidate that has union support, including the AFL CIO. I’m very confident in our opportunity to win this election.”

Crist has mostly tried to keep the focus on DeSantis, but he fired back at Fried calling her “desperate” because she’s behind in the polls. But he and Fried both trail DeSantis in most polls.

The housing crisis

The candidates would take different paths to alleviate Florida’s housing crisis, which includes soaring rent and home prices due partly to large corporations gobbling up houses to rent.

The top 10 home-buying investors in the Orlando metro area in 2021 were tied to firms in the single-family rental house business, often pricing out mortgage buyers.

Crist said under his “Wall Street Crackdown Plan,” aimed directly at such firms, he would appoint a Housing Czar to place limits on the number of single-family properties they could own in a neighborhood and ensure taxes are paid on their vacant properties.

He would also temporarily “but significantly” increase the documentary stamp tax paid by such firms when they close on a house, with revenues to go toward the Sadowski Fund, which pays for affordable housing.

Fried said she would immediately declare a housing state of emergency, halt rent hikes and designate any increase above 10% as price gouging.

She would push to repeal the law preventing local governments from enacting rent control and expand the homestead exemption to offer more tax breaks for owners of a single home.

Fried also says she would refuse to sign any bill that diverts money from the Sadowski Fund and convert empty hotels and motels to affordable housing.

Homeowners insurance

Florida homeowners pay on average more than $2,000 above the national average for property insurance, rising from $1,989 when DeSantis entered office in 2019 to the current average of $3,585, according to Insurify.

Fried would appoint a Homeowner’s Insurance Task Force to focus on fraud prevention, “innovative” ideas to reduce rates and recruiting new insurance providers.

Both Crist and Fried said they would appoint a state insurance advocate who was more consumer-focused.

Crist often cites how he lowered property insurance rates by 10% while governor. He pledged to push for a repeal of the 2021 reform law signed by DeSantis that opponents say has backfired and led to higher premiums.

Fried said she would negotiate with large insurers to bundle home and auto insurance. Crist said he would require it.

Wages for workers

Fried states she would implement a $15 minimum wage for state workers, “leading the way for a standard minimum wage across Florida.” The current minimum wage is $10 and will reach $15 by 2026 because of an amendment to the Florida Constitution approved by voters in 2020.

Crist voted for a bill in Congress in 2019 that would have increased the federal minimum wage to $15 by 2025, and he co-sponsored similar legislation in 2021. He said he would also restore cost-of-living adjustments for retired state workers.

Both have taken hits in the past for their previous stances on the minimum wage, however.

A 2014 GOP ad claiming Crist voted against a minimum wage hike was rated half-true by PolitiFact. As state attorney general in 2004, Crist was part of a teleconference by the public-private partnership Enterprise Florida in which the organization voted unanimously to oppose a minimum wage increase.

Orlando attorney John Morgan, who spearheaded the $15 minimum wage ballot measure, has also criticized Fried for her “weak” and “tepid” backing of the amendment, according to Florida Politics. She told the Tampa Bay Times in 2020 she was “on the fence.”

Abortion rights

Fried has made abortion rights a centerpiece of her campaign following the U.S. Supreme Court’s ruling to overturn Roe v. Wade in June, and she has targeted Crist’s past stances on the issue.

Fried said she would use her executive powers to increase access to abortion services and cut funding to state attorneys who prosecute women or physicians for having or performing abortions.

She told the Orlando Sentinel Editorial Board she would push the Legislature to reverse its 2022 vote to ban abortions after 15 weeks and restore its previous 24-week law.

Fried’s campaign has run ads with Crist previously describing himself as “pro-life” and has said she was the only candidate who has been for abortion rights her entire life.

She also blamed Crist for the increased abortion restrictions at their lone debate last month because of two conservative judges he appointed to the state Supreme Court.

“You want to know why our right to privacy is going to be overturned here in the state of Florida?” Fried asked. “It’s because of decisions that Charlie made when he was governor.”

Crist has a long and winding history on the abortion issue. In 1998, running for U.S. Senate as a Republican, he said he opposed late-term abortions but would not ban all of them, according to the Bradenton Herald.

In 2006, running for governor as a Republican, he said he was “pro-life and pro-family” but didn’t deny he formerly supported abortion rights, according to the Tampa Tribune.

This year, Crist pointed to 100% ratings as a Democratic member of Congress from NARAL Pro-Choice America and Planned Parenthood. He also cited his veto of a bill as governor that would have required an ultrasound before an abortion.

“I’m the only candidate in this race, for crying out loud, who actually already as a governor of Florida has vetoed an anti-abortion bill,” he told the Orlando Sentinel.

Crist pledged he would sign an executive order “defending the right to access a safe abortion as guaranteed by the Florida Constitution.”

He also states on his website that he would veto any “anti-choice” legislation.

Public education

Both Fried and Crist call for increased teacher pay, more per-student spending, expanding pre-K and more options for all-day kindergarten. But they differ on some priorities.

Fried said she would push for teacher pay increases for veteran teachers, while Crist wants starting salaries for teachers to increase from $47,500 and veterans’ salaries to be on par with the national average of $67,000.

She also wants to immediately mandate a $15 minimum wage for child care providers and aides.

“The Florida student allocation [in the state budget] hasn’t been so low since Charlie Crist was the Republican Governor,” Fried said in a dig at her opponent. She would call for the Legislature to double the nearly $10,000 it spends per student.

She also wants to expand Florida’s Bright Futures Scholarships and “explore” tuition-free community college for eligible high school students.

Crist states he would declare a teacher shortage emergency to fill “9,000 empty classrooms and other critical education positions.”

He also states he wants to “stop the unwarranted politicization of our classrooms and attacks on educators,” an apparent reference to the “don’t say gay” law that prohibits discussion of sexual orientation or gender identity in schools up to the third grade and limits it to “age-appropriate” students in higher grades.

But he also states the need to “listen to and respect parents while easing their pain of politicized classrooms and pandemic learning loss, including the reduction in reading scores over the past few years.”

Crist was endorsed by the Florida Education Association, the state’s largest teachers union.

Complete primary election coverage can be found at OrlandoSentinel.com/election