Charlie Crist went to the airwaves in the first ad for the fiercely contested Florida Republican U.S. Senate race on Wednesday, with a thirty second ad which uses various St. Pete Times headlines admonishing Marco Rubio for some of his recent transgressions that have reported by the paper in recent weeks.

Hours later, Rubio fired back with two 15 second ads, called "Yes" and "Better". Here's "Yes".

The ads come just days before the two candidates will be seated next to each other in their first full fledged debate of the 2010 campaign, this Sunday morning on Fox News Sunday hosted by Chris Wallace.

If you'll recall, Rubio was calling long and loud for debates back in the summer and fall, but the Governor, enjoying a double digit lead at the time, casually blew Rubio off. In fairness, rarely do you see debates so far ahead of an election, which will be in August.

Then recently, as Rubio began ascending in polls, Charlie Crist said that the two had a deal to debate on still the highest rated Sunday morning public affairs program, Meet The Press on March 7. Rubio declined, saying that Fox had asked first.

As far as their first public debate where Floridians will actually be in the room, there have been reports that the two will tangle in Tampa on May 1, but that has not been confirmed yet.

This article appears in Mar 24-30, 2010.