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The soundness of Florida’s pension fund has been center stage in a TV ad war in the Governor’s race. It will also likely be a bone of contention when the two candidates square off in their first debate later this evening. But as Mike Vasilinda tells us, the fund is posting healthy returns.

Rick Scott has been saying this about Alex Sink and her management of the state pension fund.

“Sink promised to crack down on financial fraud, but she lost billions of Florida’s pension funds.”

Here are the facts: the fund hit an all-time high of 136.4 billion, right before the market crashed in 2007. Thursday it was at 119 billion or about 17.4 billion less.

Over the same time, it paid out roughly 13 billion to police, firemen, teachers and state retirees.

Ash Williams manages the fund and notes that when the market dived, Florida fared better than most.

“The S&P was down about 40 percent in 2008 and the Florida retirement system trust fund was down less than half that amount,” Williams said.

Williams reports not only to Sink, but to Governor Charlie Crist and the Attorney General as well.

Attorney General Bill McCollum is one of three overseers of the pension fund and even he has called the charges against Sink unfair.

Sink has responded to the Scott ad with this:

“The Investment Management Weekly just reported that Florida’s pension fund earned record-breaking returns.”

Williams wouldn’t speak to the governor’s race, but he did point out the recognitions the fund has won.

“We lost less than the broad market when the big downturn came, and we’ve compounded capital very effectively during the rebound,” Williams said.

Since July the fund has increased 10 billion dollars, or about twice as fast as the rest of the market.