Alex Sink Fires Campaign Worker for Breaking CNN Debate Rules

Democratic gubernatorial candidate Alex Sink fired a campaign worker after the worker broke the rules and text-messaged her during a commercial break in a nationally televised debate Monday night.

CNN reported Tuesday morning that the text message was what Sink's debate opponent, Rick Scott, was talking about after the break when he said, First, Alex, you say you always follow the rules. The rule was, no one was supposed to give us messages during the break and your campaign did with an iPad, or iPod

Here's a copy of the statement Sink released when the debate ended:

After the debate tonight, one of my campaign advisers admitted he tried to communicate with me during one of the breaks. While he told me it was out of anger with Rick Scotts repeated distortion of facts, it was a foolish thing to do. It violated a debate agreement and I immediately removed him from the campaign.

The Republican Party of Florida issued a post-debate explanation from Adam Smith, co-host of the debate: "Violating their mutual agreement against notes, a Sink makeup artist came in during a commercial break and showed her a phone with a message: 'The attorney on Sykes' suit said Alex did nothing wrong. Tell ...not to let him keep talking about her.'"