Voters don't have to look for nuances when making their choice for Florida Attorney General. There's quite a contrast between the two main candidates.

Incumbent Republican Pam Bondi and Democratic challenger George Sheldon agree on almost nothing, and their styles are about as different as they come.

Bondi is a former prosecutor who has spent the last four years tackling issues such as prescription drug abuse and human trafficking with zeal, yet has come under fire for defending Florida's same-sex marriage ban. 

A firebrand who has made dozens of appearances as a legal analyst on conservative Fox News, Bondi, 48, has also defended Florida's Stand Your Ground self-defense law, taken on President Barack OBama administration on the Affordable Care Act and fought against the legalization of medical marijuana.

She has gotten involved in contentious national legal battles that haven't directly impacted Florida, including challenging an environmental dispute involving Chesapeake Bay. Bondi led the charge to let the University of South Florida exhume bodies at a closed reform school in the Panhandle despite local opposition.

With a near manic energy, she ticks off a list of issues, include cyberbullying to the problem of identity theft that she says she's eager to tackle if she gets elected to another four years.

"Frankly, I don't think this is a four-year office," Bondi said. "This office needs to be eight years. With an office this big to accomplish everything that you want to accomplish, you want to save lives, that's what it's about every single day."

Sheldon, measured in temperament and almost professorial at times, asserts that Bondi has been too fixated on partisan causes and has ignored the traditional role of the attorney general's office.

The 67-year old child welfare advocate has portrayed Bondi as an extremist who has looked out for the interests of big business at the expense of the middle class.

"Pam and I have amazing differences on policy issues," Sheldon said. "But frankly, it's about not me or about Pam. It's about what that office ought to be and where Floridians want to take this state."

The state's second most powerful elected office, the attorney general has numerous duties, including defending state laws and going after companies that deceive consumers. Yet, the race has attracted only a small faction of the attention Florida's vicious battle for the governor's office has garnered.

And that isn't particularly surprising.

"I don't think a lot of people understand what effect the attorney general has on their lives," said Christopher McCarty, director of the UF Survey Research Center and director of the University of Florida's Bureau of Economic and Business Research.

Bondi has lead in the polls, including a Bay News 9/Tampa Bay Times/UF Graham Center offering released Oct. 17 that showed her with 41 percent support to Sheldon's 31 and Libertarian candidate Bill Wohlsifer's 6.

And she is trying to close the deal with her huge advantage in fundraising. Bondi has run TV ads focused on her efforts to combat illicit drugs and human trafficking, while Sheldon has not been able to counter.

What's more, no incumbent has lost re-election for Florida attorney general in half a century.

Still, 16 percent of those polled in the BN9/Times/Graham Center said they were undecided.

"There's enough 'Don't Knows' out there that still give (Sheldon) a chance," Graham Center Director David Colburn said in mid-October. "But he hasn't reached enough Democrats, let alone voters generally, to be a name that's recognized as somebody who is a viable candidate to be attorney general."

Information from the Associated Press was included in this report.

The candidates

Pam Bondi, Republican

Age: 48

Residence: Tampa

Family: Married

Education: B.A. in criminal justice, University of Florida, 1987; J.D., Stetson University, 1990

Political career: assistant state attorney, 1992-2010; elected as attorney general, 2010

Also notable: Bondi is from Temple Terrace. Her late father, Joseph Bondi, was a city councilman and mayor of that city, taught at USF and wrote more than 25 textbooks.

George Sheldon, Democrat

Age: 67

Residence: Tallahassee

Family: Single

Education: B.A. in government, Florida State University, 1969; J.D., Florida State University, 1978

Political career: elected to state House from the Tampa area, 1974, re-elected in 1976, 1978, and 1980; deputy attorney general, 1999-2003; Secretary of the Department of Children and Families, 2008-2010; Acting Assistant Secretary for Children and Families in the U.S. Dept. of Health and Human Services, 2011-2013

Also notable:  Sheldon became the Secretary of the Florida Department of Children and Families under then-Gov. Charlie Crist. While at the Florida DCF, Sheldon played a key role in relief efforts for refugees from Haiti's 2010 earthquake

Bill Wohlsifer, Libertarian

Age: 60

Residence: Tallahassee

Family: Married

Education: B.A. in political science, University of Central Florida, 1991; J.D., St. Thomas University, 1996

Political career: Senior Assistant General Counsel, Dept. of Business and Professional Regulation, Division of Florida Condominiums, Timeshares, and Mobile Homes, 2008-2011

Also notable: Wohlsifer is the first minor party candidate to appear on the ballot for Florida attorney general since 1916.