Dave Aronberg : Unethical contributions in state attorney race?

WEST PALM BEACH, Fla. - A day after we broke that the Democratic candidate for state attorney is now under investigation over an ethics complaint, there are new claims that he took dirty money.

But Dave Aronberg says his Republican opponent is talking out of both sides of her mouth.

It all starts with a phone number. 800-411-PAIN. It's a phone number for a referral service for doctors and lawyers with offices all over Florida.

The phone number was a catchy part of commercials that ran in South Florida late last year.

The firm was investigated by attorney general Pam Bondi for allegedly misleading customers into thinking that there were actual policemen in the ads.

During her investigation, Sunshine State News in Tallahassee reported today that 411-Pain founder Robert Lewin - and his business associates - gave $14,000 in campaign contributions to Bondi's employee, special prosecutor Dave Aronberg.

He was running the state's anti-pill mill effort then. His Republican opponent for state attorney, Dina Keever, has one word. "Unethical."

But Aronberg says there's no way he could have leaned on Bondi to go easy on 411-Pain even if he wanted to.

As a criminal prosecutor, he says he couldn't have known about a civil probe.

"False advertising complaints about any of these hundreds of companies that are being investigated by the attorney general civil side, would never come across our desk."

Aronberg had this to say about Keever:

"People who live in glass houses shouldn't be throwing stones."

Aronberg says Keever is the one taking dirty money.

He says members of a firm she works for are under investigation over a wrongful death suit in Miami.

She admits she accepted several thousand dollars from Lewis & Tien, but says it's different because no one she worked for was investigating them.

"Mr. Aronberg is just pounding the table in an attempt to take the attention away from ethics problems and the allegations against him," said Keever.

The third candidate in the race, independent Robert Gershman, says the back-and-forth is unproductive.

"We need to focus on safety in the county," he said.