Last night during closing remarks at a city council candidate forum, Janet Cruz steered away from her own merits as a politician to instead lob an incendiary question at her opponent, incumbent Lynn Hurtak.

Cruz was talking about her 13 years serving in the Florida legislature, when suddenly she shifted gears and said, “I don’t know what Hurtak’s problem is with my daughter and the mayor.”

“I do!” someone in the crowd at the Hillsborough County NAACP forum shouted back.

Then, the booing poured in, but that didn’t stop Cruz from continuing on.

“I know!” Cruz said. “Do you have a problem with gay people?” Cruz said, turning to Hurtak. “I don’t understand you.”

She ended it there and sat down, but the booing continued until the next candidate to speak stood up and asked for calm.

Cruz was referring to her daughter, Ana Cruz, managing partner at the lobbying firm Ballard Partners. Ana refers to herself as “Tampa’s 1st lady” on Twitter and has been the significant other of Tampa Mayor Jane Castor since 2008.

Cruz entered the city council race last November after a failed Senate bid and decided to run against Hurtak—the only woman currently on city council.

Luis Salazar, Political Action Chair for the Hillsborough LGBTQ Democratic Caucus told Creative Loafing Tampa Bay that candidates should avoid using accusatory remarks.

“It’s never OK to attack anyone at a forum, especially when they have a proven record of defending LGBTQ rights, which both of these women do,” Salazar said.

Both Hurtak and Cruz are members of the caucus. However, Hurtak was endorsed earlier this month because the membership thought she’d be a more long term supporter of the caucus and because of her long history of supporting the LGBTQ community. The caucus did not endorse any other candidate besides Hurtak.

“One of the main reasons we voted for Hurtak was her putting her support into action for our community,” Salazar said. “She spoke about marriage equality and how when she got married to her current husband, they chose to get married in New York instead of Florida because there was marriage equality there.”

Hurtak and her husband Tim Burke got married back in 2012. Today, the councilwoman told CL that it was very important for them to economically support those who already had marriage equality.

“And instead of a traditional registry, because we were older and didn’t need much, we asked for donations to marriage equality instead,” Hurtak said.

Hurtak referenced her recent endorsement by both the Hillsborough LGBTQ caucus and the Florida LGBTQ Democratic Caucus.

“So I don’t know where this accusation comes from,” Hurtak said. “I think people saw it for what it was, and the people are just as insulted as I am.”

Today, Cruz said that her job as a mother is to always stand up for her family, and that nobody should second guess that.

“I’m proud of my daughter and everything she’s accomplished and Lynn’s continual attacks on my family and her whisper campaign is pathetic,” Cruz said. “We have too many important issues to tackle and I have zero tolerance for mean girls.”

Cruz’ campaign team alleged that Hurtak was going around before the forum letting people know about the relationship between Ana Cruz and Castor, and the fact that Janet is Ana’s mother.

Yvette Lewis, President of the Hillsborough NAACP, said she didn’t hear about Hurtak saying anything in regards to the Cruz family before the meeting. She added that Cruz’ behavior made people confused.

“It threw people off. They were like, ‘Where did she get that from?’,” Lewis told CL. “I’ve never heard Lynn Hurtak say anything about having a problem with gay people.”

Lewis encouraged the community to watch Hillsborough NAACP’s video where the incident takes place at 38 minutes and 30 seconds in.

“I just can’t understand why Cruz would do that,” Lewis said.

Hurtak pointed out that city council often approves much of what the mayor wants done. But Hurtak and others on council have sounded off about controversial aspects of the mayor’s agenda, like the PURE wastewater plan (also known as toilet to tap) and the City Center at Hanna Avenue project.

“You know, toilet to tap, or extra subpoena power and an independent lawyer for CRB, or being able to vote on whether or not we’re having a housing emergency, those are things that I took from citizens and not from the mayor, and I’ll stand by those votes,” Hurtak said.

After months of Hurtak taking stances against the mayor when her constituency requested it, Cruz entered the race against her.

“City council serves as a check and balance to the city administration, and my opponent’s choice to frame the fact that I take that role seriously as ‘an attack on my family’ speaks for itself,” Hurtak said.