It took three months to get there, but Miami-Dade mayoral candidates Carlos Gimenez and Julio Robaina on Friday hit on one of their strongest policy differences yet — over employee benefits for domestic partners.

In the last debate of the campaign, Robaina said he would likely support any move by county commissioners to repeal benefits currently offered by the county, which allows its unmarried employees to buy health insurance for their partners, and for the couples to visit each other in jail and in the hospital.

Gimenez said he would veto an effort to strike down those benefits.

The clear-cut disagreement was striking because it came just five days before Tuesday’s runoff election, after weeks of campaigning and a slew of forums and debates that had covered a gamut of county issues.

On Friday, the Christian Family Coalition endorsed Robaina — prompting WFOR-CBS 4 investigative reporter Jim DeFede, who moderated Friday’s half-hour-long debate, to ask the domestic-partnerships question.

County commissioners signed off on the benefits for unmarried couples three years ago, though not without opposition from the dais and from outside groups, including a coalition of religious leaders.

“The law is the law, and it’s there,” Robaina said, the former Hialeah mayor. “We’re not here to remove that.”

When pressed, he added that he would probably favor repealing the law if the initiative came from commissioners.

Gimenez, a former county commissioner, said he voted for the benefits and would oppose doing away with them.

“I will exercise my veto and veto it,” he said. “I think it’s the right thing to do.”

The two men, both Cuban-American Republicans seeking the non-partisan mayor’s post, said marriage should be between a man and a woman. DeFede then asked the candidates if sexual orientation is a choice.

Surprised by the question, Gimenez initially stammered and then recovered. “People are just people,” he said. “People are what they are.”

“Listen,” responded Robaina, “I’m not here to determine people’s sexual preference.”

The debate, which was taped Friday morning and will air at 10 a.m. Saturday on News & Views with Eliott Rodriguez, marked the final time the mayoral hopefuls will face off as the short, intense race to replace ousted Mayor Carlos Alvarez wraps up. Early voting, which has been taking place for a week in sites across the county, ends at 7 p.m. Saturday.

On Monday, Gimenez canceled his appearance in a series of candidate forums planned for the last days of the contest, saying that he and Robaina had debated plenty and that he wanted to focus his energies on meeting voters. Robaina seized Gimenez’s change of plan as an opportunity to question Gimenez’s commitment to the county.

Robaina appeared solo at a luncheon Friday sponsored by the influential Latin Builders Association, which had already thrown its support behind Robaina but had invited both candidates to spar one more time before the organization’s members. Next to Robaina at the event was an empty chair reminding attendees of Gimenez’s absence.

The same thing happened Thursday night on América TeVe’s A Mano Limpia, a nightly Spanish-language current events show. Sitting in the studio were Robaina, show host Oscar Haza and an empty black chair with a “Carlos Gimenez” nameplate in front of it.

“I think it is disrespectful to the voters of this community, and to the press of this community,” Robaina said on the show, where he frequently slammed his opponent for not showing up. Robaina accused Gimenez of “trying to divide this community” by shying away from a debate in Spanish but agreeing to the one on Friday in English.

At the News & Views debate, both men took frequent swings at each other, trying to highlight their differences in experience and style — in part because they tend to agree on matters of policy.

“I haven’t been part of the problem; Commissioner Gimenez has been a part of the problem,” Robaina said. “So it’s quite different.”

While Robaina touted his recently released economic vision for the county, Gimenez poked him for speaking in favor of a new taxpayer-financed baseball stadium for the Florida Marlins and for Hialeah’s 17.3 percent unemployment rate.

“Where was his economic development plan in Hialeah?” Gimenez said.

Later, DeFede asked each man why he thinks the other wants to be mayor. That seemed to stump Gimenez, who said it was not a fair question.

“It’s not for me to know… what’s in his heart, what’s in his mind,” he said of Robaina. “I have no reason to doubt that he’s sincere.”

Robaina answered with a thinly veiled jab at his opponent: “Mr. Gimenez has been a lifelong bureaucrat,” he said. “His intent of continuing to be in the government, that’s his own decision.”

To lighten the mood, DeFede threw the candidates a curveball: When was the last time each of them got drunk?

A startled Gimenez laughed heartily. “I don’t know, man, it’s been a while,” he said, then pointed to a time almost a decade ago when he was Miami’s city manager.

“Listen, I’m not a beer guy,” he added. “I guess the last time I had a little bit too much to drink was right after a city commission meeting, where it was a pretty rough meeting and I went home and knocked down a couple of rum and Cokes.”

When he took his turn, Robaina smiled.

“Jim, I can’t remember so far back,” he said. “Probably some time in college. Probably some time in college was the last time I had a little bit too much to drink.”