Those who expected fireworks as they walked into Friday's Tampa Tiger Bay Club forum featuring two of the three Democratic U.S. Senate candidates were not disappointed.

And it wasn't just the candidates supplying the sparks.

Alan Grayson, an Orlando Congressman known for his blunt and at times confrontational manner and his lesser-known opponent Pamela Keith, who hails from North Palm Beach, fielded questions from a particularly feisty crowd. Patrick Murphy, a Democratic Congressman from Jupiter (the Atlantic coast town, not the planet) who's the Democratic establishment's favorite in the primary, was absent.

The three are running in a primary in the race to replace U.S. Senator Marco Rubio, a Republican frontrunner in the GOP presidential race who was elected to the seat in 2010. Both primaries in the race have crowded rosters.

The first bit of drama Friday was almost immediate; Planned Parenthood was the topic. The audience member who asked was clearly not a fan, and his (shaky) premise hinged on the organization's founder, Margaret Sanger, whom some on the far right falsely claim was motivated to make birth control and abortion more accessible by a desire to reduce inner-city African-American populations (which the questioner called "genocide").

“Let me say that I categorically disagree with you when you use the word genocide,” a visibly fired-up Keith, who is African-American shot back. “You used that word because you talk about it from the premise that we're eliminating people. I disagree fundamentally with that notion. I don't think a group of cells in somebody's body is a person. That's number one. Number two, I absolutely support the funding of Planned Parenthood, because abortion is just such a tiny little bit of what they do.”

Grayson called the claims about Sanger “nonsense.”

“Nothing personal, but there's a special place in hell for those who smear the dead,” he said. "[The war on Planned Parenthood] is an effort by men in government to control the bodies of women and I will fight back every chance I get."

The congressman wasn't afraid to lock horns with critics in the audience who asked him about recent reports calling his ethics into question or quoting him using ad hominem attacks against foes despite a stated desire to stay on the issues.

One questioner asked about Grayson's oft-colorful descriptions of foes, like calling former Vice President Dick Cheney a "vampire bat" (ha!) and Republicans "knuckle-dragging neanderthals." Grayson asked him what his sources were, and the asker replied he compiled the list of insults from various news reports. A testy exchange ensued:

“So you've been trolling me for years? Just cutting and pasting?” Grayson said.

“No, I was just interested in a man running for public office and I wanted to look at the kind of character he had,” said the questioner.

“What kind of character do you have to do that?” Grayson said.

“I mean, I'm quoting your words," said the questioner. "If I'm wrong, or if I'm misquoting you, by all means, take me to task. If it's the truth, surely you're proud of it.”

Grayson didn't deny that he did use that rather creative phrasing to describe his political foes, instead imploring the audience to stick to the issues.

“Is there anything you'd like to ask about America, sir?" he said "Anything you'd like to ask about health care? Anything you'd like to ask about, let's say, education? Anything you'd like to ask about the $11 trillion trade debt? Is there anything you'd like to ask about any thing that matters to anyone in thise room and their personal lives? Anything at all?”

The audience didn't exactly abide.

A few wanted to him to respond to a recent New York Times report suggesting he tried to personally profit while on official business overseas as well as Democratic Senate Minority Leader Harry Reid's call for Grayson to drop out of the race in the wake of the report.

Grayson denied the story, said Reid "bore false witness" against him and blamed Reid's attacks on the Democratic establishment's support of Murphy—a former Republican some consider more electable because of what some consider a moderate platform—over him.

“I want to point out that Harry Reid is under criminal investigation right now, so I hardly think that Harry Reid should preach to me about having a moral compass. Harry Reid's been a human cash register, now, for his entire career in Congress. He's everyone's lobbyist's best friend," Grayson said. “I never made a penny, not even a penny, from trading on my Congressional experience. Never. Not even once…They only way that they think they can defeat me is to pressure me, pressure me, pressure me into dropping out. And you know what I say to them? The one-finger salute.”

Keith also decried the attacks.

“I'm not here to be a part of the chorus that's excoriating him,” she said.

When it came to the issues Keith and Grayson had more in common than not, except maybe when it came to the controversial Trans-Pacific Partnership. Grayson detests it, Keith appeared a little more open to it.

When it came to their preference on a nominee to replace U.S. Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia, the two shared a common favorite: U.S. Sen. Elizabeth Warren.

“I think she would make an excellent jurist," Keith said. "She is known for being restrained while still being tough.”

The forum was one of Keith's first, if not her first, appearance in Tampa Bay as a U.S. Senate candidate, and, despite being a relative unknown who isn't even represented in some polls, she presented herself as a passionate, polished contender.

She spoke openly and thoughtfully of her views on a range of issues that included marijuana legalization, calling it "intellectually inconsistent" for substances like alcohol and prescription painkillers to be legal when marijuana, by most if not all credible measures a far less harmful substance, is not legal in most places.

“My view personally is that it is absurd that marijuana is criminalized,” she said. “I don't want my tax dollars housing people because they wanted to get high. That's stupid.”

While she was far from eager to throw barbs Grayson's way, she did have some not-so-positive words about Murphy, who represents the district in which she resides. She said she campaigned for Murphy in 2012, but since he was elected, some of his votes have been more than disappointing.

“I think he owes me an apology,” she said.

Among the issues he voted on in ways she thought did not reflect the district was a measure to bar Syrian refugees from entering the country.

“Now, I know he had reasons for doing so," she said. "And I don't doubt that there are people who are very afraid of Syrian refugees. The problem is, that's not who we are. As Democrats, we don't judge people because of their religion. We don't assume that they're threats to us because they're different than us. That is not a Democratic sensibility.”

The primary election takes place August 30 of this year.

This article appears in Feb 18-24, 2016.