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Congressional Candidates Trade Jabs In Key West

Nancy Klingener
/
WLRN

The contest for Florida’s 26th congressional district is close, and the race is getting national attention. But when Democratic incumbent Congressman Joe Garcia debated Republican challenger Carlos Curbelo Monday, it was a small town affair. 

U.S. Rep. Joe Garcia and Miami-Dade County School Board member Carlos Curbelo disagree on a lot of issues. And they fundamentally disagree on whether the public should invest in government – or cut it back. But their sharpest words at Monday’s debate were over character.

"It's been a rough four years for this district," Curbelo said, pointing to the subject of TV ads that have been bombarding Keys residents: investigations into Garcia's last campaign, when he defeated David Rivera in 2012. Curbelo painted himself as the reformer in the race.

"Three people have gone to jail in this district in the last three years," Curbelo said, "one of them Congressman Garcia's former chief of staff."

Garcia responded by questioning Curbelo's own ethics. Curbelo founded a lobbying firm that has been in his wife's name for the last five years. And Garcia said those ads targeting him were largely funded by the Koch brothers, intent on advancing a Tea Party agenda.

"This is a guy who, we don't know who he represents," Garcia said. "He's a highly paid lobbyist but he won't tell us who his clients are."

The debate at the district's southernmost end drew a small crowd, many of them supporters of candidates in local races for circuit judge and Mosquito Control Board. But there were a few, like Key West publisher Sheri Lohr, who came to hear what the Congressional candidates had to say.

"I'm one of those people who never vote in advance if I can help it," Lohr said. "I always vote at the very last minute, because you never know what's going to turn up in those last few weeks."

Nancy Klingener was WLRN's Florida Keys reporter until July 2022.
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