Open Florida attorney general post sparks bitter fight

An open seat for Florida attorney general has triggered open warfare among candidates in both the Democratic and Republican primaries for the Cabinet post.

Republican Attorney General Pam Bondi, term-limited after eight years, has endorsed fellow Tampa resident, former Hillsborough County Circuit Judge Ashley Moody. But Moody’s opponent, state Rep. Frank White, a Pensacola Republican, has poured almost $3 million of his family’s money into TV ads — mostly attacking Moody.

Both Republicans tout devotion to law enforcement, conservative values and President Donald Trump — while raising doubts about the opponent’s fealty to the same.

On the Democratic side, there’s also a combative twist — one that will see the two challengers square off in a courtroom before either is on the ballot.

State Rep. Sean Shaw of Tampa is suing to have opponent Ryan Torrens, also a Tampa lawyer, thrown off the ballot — with an Aug. 22 hearing in Leon County Circuit Court pivotal to whether the pair actually meet again in the primary six days later.

“Unfortunately, my opponent has chosen to take this race negative,” Torrens said of the lawsuit.

Torrens acknowledges he was wrong to accept a $4,000 campaign donation — exceeding the state’s $3,000 limit — that helped him pay his qualifying fee. But he said the check was from his wife and from the couple’s joint bank account.

Had he signed it — not his wife — the check would have been a legal loan to the campaign, Torrens said. Now, it will be up to a judge to decide whether Torrens stays on the ballot.

“I’m running on a platform of holding everyone accountable under the law,” Shaw said. “If I don’t hold my primary opponent accountable, what does it mean when I tell people I’m going to hold the Legislature accountable? When I’m going to go after anyone doing wrong in this state?”

The state’s top legal officer, the Florida attorney general is one of three Cabinet posts that will be decided in November, along with agriculture commissioner and chief financial officer.

Agriculture Commissioner Adam Putnam, a Republican, is term-limited and running for governor, while CFO Jimmy Patronis is seeking his first election to the spot after being appointed last year by Gov. Rick Scott to complete the term of two-term incumbent Jeff Atwater, who resigned to take a job at Florida Atlantic University.

The attorney general’s seat has been held by Republicans since 2002. While the duties include defending state agencies, issuing legal opinions, fighting Medicaid fraud, and overseeing the office of statewide prosecution, the office is shaded by politics.

One of the few Florida Republican elected officials who actively campaigned for Trump in 2016, Bondi fought the Affordable Care Act, joined Republican attorneys general in fighting Obama-era water quality standards and defended the state’s ban on same sex marriage until it was overturned by the U.S. Supreme Court.

She also pushed for aggressively enforcing laws against human trafficking, fought pill mills and health care fraud, and recently joined other states in suing drug manufacturers she accuses of profiting from the state’s runaway opioid problem.

On the Republican side, both Moody and White say they would seek to follow most of Bondi’s policy approaches.

“She’s done a fantastic job,” White said. “My approach does mirror hers, in defending the constitution against government overreach and keeping citizens safe.”

Moody, who is shown getting a hug from Bondi in her TV spots, sees a similarity between the two.

“Attorney General Bondi was a prosecutor, not a politician, when she was elected,” Moody said. “And she was extremely effective.”

The Democrats in the race both say they would tilt the office more heavily toward consumer protection, taking on corporate wrongdoing. Both support stricter gun regulation and defend the Affordable Care Act.

Torrens, who specializes in foreclosure and debt collection cases, said Bondi “basically destroyed the consumer protection office,” in her agency.

“Over the past 20 years, the consumer has been forgotten and our government has been controlled by big corporate interests,” Torrens said. “I’m going to work to change that.”

Shaw, whose father, Leander Shaw, was the first black chief justice of the Florida Supreme Court, is a former insurance consumer advocate, elected to the state House in 2016. He recently called for repealing the state’s controversial stand your ground self-defense law, and promised to create a statewide gun violence prevention task force if elected.

“Who do you want to be your lawyer?” Shaw said. “Someone like me who is going to fight and has a record of doing that, or someone on the other side who’s going to continue what we’ve got? If you like what we’ve got, maybe I won’t get your vote.”

Shaw has drawn more establishment support in the race — and money, holding about a 10-to-1 fundraising edge over Torrens.

The Republicans are closer in cash, with end-of-July totals showing White raising $3.6 million — most of it his own money — to Moody’s $3 million, helped by almost $300,000 in public financing, which her opponent criticizes her for taking.

Each has launched incendiary TV advertising against the other. A recent Moody spot has a handful of Florida sheriffs praising her background and blasting White for never serving as a prosecutor.

White is chief financial officer and general counsel for a string of car dealerships his wife’s family owns in the Florida Panhandle and Alabama.

White and Moody have traded charges in ads that the other is not a reliable conservative.

White points out that Moody was once a registered Democrat — choosing that party as an 18-year-old and for her first five years as a voter. She also once sued Trump, reaching a settlement for her family’s loss of a deposit on a condo in the failed Trump Tower Tampa project.

Moody’s latest ad includes Seminole County Sheriff Dennis Lemma calling White a “car salesman turned politician, whose old firm gave thousands to liberals.” White worked three years for the international law firm, Akin Gump, in Dallas, after graduating law school. Akin Gump is a contributor to Democrats and Republicans.