Alex Sink, Florida Gov. Candidate, Accused of "Cheating" in Debate

Alex Sink, the Democratic candidate for Florida governor, participates in a debate against Republican challenger Rick Scott at Nova University in Davie, Fla. Wednesday, Oct. 20, 2010.

/ AP Photo/J Pat Carter

Florida gubernatorial candidate Alex Sink, a Democrat, was caught violating the terms of a debate with Republican opponent Rick Scott on Monday, after she was seen reading a text message sent by an aide.

CNN reports that the incident took place during a debate hosted by themselves and St. Petersburg Times, during which "no notes and no props on stage" were permitted, per a written agreement both candidates had signed.

But during a commercial break, Sink's makeup artist showed the candidate a two-sentence message on a Droid cell phone, sent from an adviser, directing her on a point of conversation.

"The attorney who [w]on the Sykes suit said alex sink [sic] did nothing wrong. Tell not to let him keep talking about her," the message said.

Scott, who spotted the violation, brought it up when the debate resumed.

"First Alex, you say you always follow the rules," Scott said. "The rule was no one was supposed to give us messages during the break, and your campaign did with an iPad or an iPod."

Sink fired the aide following the debate, and released a statement shortly thereafter.

"After the debate tonight, one of my campaign advisors admitted he tried to communicate with me during one of the breaks," Sink said in the statement. "While he told me it was out of anger with Rick Scott's repeated distortion of facts, it was a foolish thing to do. It violated a debate agreement and I immediately removed him from the campaign."

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CNN reports that aides and advisers to the candidates were not allowed backstage, but each was allowed to bring along his or her own makeup artist.

Sink, the CFO for the state of Florida, currently leads former health care executive Scott by a slim four point margin, according to a recent poll. CBS News currently rates the race a toss up.

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Lucy Madison is a political reporter for CBSNews.com. You can read more of her posts here. Follow Hotsheet on Facebook and Twitter.

[starving1968-3]

by LIBERALS-lie October 27, 2010 8:00 PM EDT
No that cant be -only republicans cheat and do bad things. Democrats are honest and never do anything wrong. ++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
Democrats - reading text messages during debates.
Republicans - starting wars for no apparent reason, while plundering our economy and bungling the response to it's freefalling spiral downward, after turning the country over to the wealthy and big businesses that shipped all of our manufacturing jobs overseas.
You consider these to be "equally offensive"?

[rockcutr]

So, who really wants to be king of dinosaur alley?
Will all the liars and scally wags step up to center stage. First off, we all realize that florida is sinking into a huge hole in the ground. Maybe 4 yrs remain on solid ground. Then this shall be the florida keys all the way to erlando. We love our 3 ring circus down here and our oJ. Our purtor icans keep the lawns nice and add plenty of spice to the culture. Jewish rasins line the jai amiii sands. But, faceit no national team bochie ball or Jai alii.....these are things made for entertaining those who think football isn't the sport of kings. Over all a stinky state. Lot like rotten eggs...Snakes have taken over tallerhussy.
all bent on bending over the migration of old jews and sassy olde yorkers. Yet, these are the golden eggs of the annual migration mitagation. Should fla. close it' border with peaches. Maybe so...
Allow the politicians to destroy the winter kamp swampy first. Shouldn't take long with this bunch of houligans.

[cgirltruck]

I don't understand why she fired the aide? He was doing his job really. If she is so fast at firing the aide maybe she should consider "firing" herself because she also broke the rules.

[Ordflyer]

Want to be a billionaire and then run for Florida governor?

It's easy: just start a company, double and triple bill Medicare for the same patients and then act like you had no idea that this was going on IN YOUR OWN COMPANY! In my opinion Rick Scott stole his billions from taxpayers and the government and now runs on an anti-government platform.

In my opinion Rick Scott should be in jail!!

[LIBERALS-lie]

No that cant be -only republicans cheat and do bad things. Democrats are honest and never do anything wrong.

[edixope4842]

Dishonest politicians? Wow! Who would have guessed?

[NinthSt78]

She can rest assured that she isn't the first one that has gotten caught sneekin' a peek.

[dallan--2008]

Libertarians like Paul have no respect for the law. His very words are an affront to decency and the stable society we have forged out of the chaos that Libertarianism espouses. I pray to Christ that the people of KY do not elect such a grotesque candidate like Paul for US Senate! He doesn't care about the suffering that will come from his beliefs of how gov't should be taken apart - that foundation is why we have a stable society that protects food, water, land, and keeps the rich from walking all over us. The rich get richer, the working class get shat upon... that's really wonderful. THOMAS JEFFERSON believed the rich should be soaked for tax money and I agree with him. SORRY

[crazyname]

She immediately fired the hair stylist, or makeup girl. If that is what she was, why was she delivering a phone to Sink. Her campaign manager set her up. another democrat fired before all the story is in place. sink is a typical politian, and we don't need another obamaite representing FL.

[TheKnowerseeker]

"no notes and no props on stage" -- Ok. But did they know ahead of time what arguments each was going to present against the other? In a debate, it is possible for one side (or both) to present an argument or side issue that the other side is not prepared for and has not had time to think through. That's why trial lawyers are required to present the evidence they'll be using to each other *before* the trial, so that each has time to formulate a rebuttal. (I think that they may also be required to present their primary arguments to each other ahead of time as well, though I'm not sure I remember that correctly.) Written argument is different because each writer has time to think about the other's arguments just presented before writing a reply.