Putnam, DeSantis take off gloves in final gubernatorial debate

Adam Putnam is a career politician who will say and do anything to win and an errand boy for U.S. Sugar, Ron DeSantis declared in a televised gubernatorial debate between the two GOP rivals on Wednesday night.

DeSantis is a "Seinfeld candidate" whose campaign is all about nothing, Putnam said. He knows next to nothing about Florida issues.

"You've run for three offices in three years. That's a career politician with (attention deficit disorder)," the agriculture commissioner said in response to DeSantis repeatedly calling Putnam a lifelong politician.

Held at Jacksonville University and televised across the state -- but not in Tampa Bay -- the second and final Republican primary debate for governor included particularly sharp exchanges about environmental policy and the algae bloom crisis afflicting large swaths of Florida.

"Adam is basically the errand boy for U.S. sugar. He is going to stand with them time and time again," said DeSantis, who contends the sugar industry deserves much of the blame for Lake Okeechobee's algae problem and dismissed the impact of septic tanks on the crisis.

"I will stand with the citizens of southwest Florida," DeSantis said. "I will stand with the citizens of the Treasure Coast."

Putnam has run a traditional campaign with stump speeches, policy papers and barbecue rallies, while DeSantis has relied largely on his association with President Trump, personal biography, and appearances on Fox News to trump local issues.

Putnam cast DeSantis as a creature of Washington who knows little and "plays hide the ball" with his plans for Florida.

Trump's endorsement catapulted DeSantis into the frontrunner for the nomination. Putnam again praised the president's agenda Wednesday, but said that, unlike the president, DeSantis is campaigning without telling Florida voters what he actually wants to do as governor. "He ran on a plan. You're running on an endorsement," the Bartow Republican said. "I can't imagine a world where you run for governor from the third largest state and never offer any ideas."

DeSantis, 39, largely ignored the criticism of his nebulous policy agenda but not Putnam's repeated references to the congressman being a Washington politician. Putnam, 44, spent a decade in the U.S. House.

"When he was in Washington, his career was a doozy," DeSantis said. "Voting to bail out the Wall Street banks, voting for Cash for Clunkers, Obama's boondoggle program, voting to bailout Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac. That is not what we need in Florida, that record."

Contact Adam C. Smith at asmith@tampabay.com. Follow @AdamSmithTimes