It was an awkward first few minutes in Wednesday night's gubernatorial debate at Broward College between Gov. Rick Scott and former Gov. Charlie Crist.

Scott at first said he wasn't going to participate in the second debate against Crist because of an electric fan that was placed on the ground at Crist's podium.



According to the debate moderator, the rules state there can't be fans at the podiums.

Scott eventually walked onto the stage about five minutes after the debate was supposed to get underway.

About 50 minutes into the debate during the Lightning Round, the moderator asked Crist why he insisted on bringing a fan when his campaign knew it would be a contentious issue.

"Why not?" Crist said, with a chuckle. "Is there anything wrong with being comfortable? ... We did fine."

Asked about the delay in coming onto the stage over a fan, Scott said: "I waited until we figured out if (Crist) was going to show up. He said he wasn't going to come ... to the debate. "So, why come out until he was ready?"

Crist is known to use an electric fan at public appearances to avoid sweating. The hashtag, #FanGate, was trending on Twitter Wednesday night.



Meanwhile in the Spin Room, advocates for both candidates tried to make the debate work for their side.

"It's silly and petty that Rick Scott believes the fan issue is so important that he would deprive Floridians of a debate simply because he wants the other guy to sweat a little bit more," said former state Sen. Dan Gelber.



"[Charlie Crist] who, I believe, cheated in the debate to start out, and it's unfortunate, but the good news is there was an opportunity to debate and when it came down to the issues, what you saw is Governor Crist doing what he always does: deflecting, misrepresenting, and not talking about his record when he was the governor, which was abysmal," said State Rep. Will Weatherford, R-House Speaker.



Scott and Crist sparred in their first debate last week.

According to the latest News 13/UF Bob Graham Center Florida Decides Poll, Scott and Crist are dead even, at 40 percent each. Libertarian candidate Adrian Wyllie received support from 6 percent of likely voters.