DeSantis: I served; Putnam: I know Fla.
GOP gubernatorial rivals spell out their differences at event.
ORLANDO — After taking some long-distance shots at each other last week, Republican Florida gubernatorial rivals Adam Putnam and Ron DeSantis drew more cordial distinctions over the weekend when they appeared together in the same room for the first time.
Agriculture Commissioner Putnam and U.S. Rep. DeSantis didn’t share the stage at the conservative Florida Family Policy Council dinner on Saturday night.
Instead, each took 30-minute turns fielding questions from Republican focusgroup impresario and messaging maven Frank Luntz in front of about 450 members of the evangelical Christian group.
Luntz, who was applauded when he pledged not to ask any “gotcha” questions, asked each candidate to differentiate himself from his rival.
“He’s a good guy, I respect him,” DeSantis said of Putnam. As for a difference, he said, “I think the fact that I’ve done things like served in the military and served our country ... I thought it was important that I be willing to put my money where my mouth was.”
DeSantis, who has a Harvard law degree, was a U.S. Navy JAG officer deployed to Iraq as an adviser to Navy SEALs and to the terrorist detention center at Guantanamo Bay in Cuba.
DeSantis used more forceful terms to draw that contrast with Putnam last week.
“He’s been in office since he was 22 years old and has been a career politician. When he was in his 20s, he was in elective office. When I was in my 20s, I was serving in Iraq, in Guantanamo Bay, and our military. So, it’s a much different approach,” DeSantis said in a radio interview with conservative syndicated host John Fredericks.
Putnam, at a Forum Club of the Palm Beaches appearance last week, criticized DeSantis for skipping that event and said the frequent Fox News guest “can’t run for governor from a D.C.based studio. You better be willing to get out amongst the people whose votes you’re asking for and look them in the eye and tell them your vision for Florida.”
Speaking after DeSantis, Putnam said he’s “grateful” for his rival’s military service and used subtler terms than he did at the Forum Club to describe their differences.
“The next governor of Florida needs to know Florida, needs to know every corner of our state, the diversity of our state, the challenges of our state ... I believe that some of us really have a passion for state issues and some of us really have a passion for federal issues,” Putnam said Saturday night.
Putnam, who served five U.S. House terms before returning to Florida to run for agriculture commissioner, added that he “left Washington with my soul and my sanity still intact because I was more convinced than ever before that our founders had it right, that the states are the laboratories of democracy.”
Shortly before the dinner began, Putnam unveiled a “Florida Families First Agenda” that includes a pledge to “Fight for the life of the unborn by expanding services that help mothers successfully carry their pregnancy to term” and to “Remove activist judges who seek to protect abortions by legislating from the bench.”
He also promised to create an ombudsman in the Florida Department of Education to focus solely on helping families who opt to homeschool their children.
In response to a question from Luntz, Putnam said he’d sign a “heartbeat bill” banning abortions if a fetal heartbeat can be detected, which is generally six weeks after conception. DeSantis wasn’t asked the same question, but his campaign described him as “100 percent pro-life” in an introductory video shown to the audience before DeSantis sat down with Luntz.
Luntz asked both Putnam and DeSantis how they’d respond to a hypothetical bill allowing transgender people to use the restroom of their choice.
“I would leave it as it is and stay out of that,” DeSantis said. When pressed about a hypothetical bill, DeSantis said he’d veto it, adding “Getting into the bathroom wars, I don’t think that’s a good use of our time.”
When Putnam was asked about such a bill, he said: “As a father ... I am not going to sign a bill that allows men into my daughters’ restrooms.”
Both Putnam and DeSantis took issue with gun control provisions in the Marjory Stoneman Douglas Public Safety Act passed by the Republican-controlled Florida Legislature and signed into law by Gov. Rick Scott after the Parkland massacre. The bill raises the age to buy a gun in Florida to 21 instead of 18 and imposes a three-day waiting period on most firearm purchases.
“I would have approached it differently because I think it scapegoated law-abiding citizens in terms of their Second Amendment rights,” said DeSantis.
DeSantis also said that if he were governor, he would have removed Broward County Sheriff Scott Israel over his agency’s inaction on warning signs prior to the shooting.
Putnam also said he supported much of the post-Parkland bill, but would not have signed it because of its gun provisions.
“I don’t think it’s right to say to someone who’s 20 years old that it’s OK to go to Iraq and Afghanistan and defend freedom and defend liberty with your life but you can’t go to the sporting goods store and buy a shotgun to go to a doveshoot down the street,” Putnam said.