The contest between Rep. Lincoln Diaz-Balart and Raul Martinez has been billed as the battle of the titans, a clash between the Republican incumbent best known for a firm stance on Cuba and the former mayor of Hialeah, a Democrat who touts his two decades in office.

The contest has largely devolved into a flurry of insults: Diaz-Balart, 54, has repeatedly pointed to Martinez's conviction on corruption charges to portray his opponent as ethically challenged; Martinez, 59, whose conviction was reversed on appeal, has countered that Diaz-Balart has had problems of his own, including a $30,000 fine for campaign finance violations.

Keeping the seat for the Republicans has become a priority for national GOP'ers, who have spent nearly $1.6 million in the district on mailers and TV ads that attack Martinez.

And national Democrats eager to pick up the Republican district that winds through Hialeah, Kendall, Perrine and a slice of Miramar and Pembroke Pines, have spent nearly $2 million on ads critical of Lincoln and his brother, Mario Diaz-Balart.

The candidates disagree on almost everything, from the war in Iraq to the Bush tax cuts, though Lincoln Diaz-Balart voted twice against the Wall Street bailout plan, and Martinez said he, too, opposed the measure.

They disagree on U.S.-Cuba policy. Martinez would lift the 2004 restrictions on travel and remittances sent to the island; Diaz-Balart says no sanctions should be lifted until the Cuban government embraces democracy.

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