With polls suggesting increasingly competitive races, six South Florida congressional candidates will be at the same place at the same time Wednesday -- a first in this year's heated campaign.

The six will field questions at the Greater Miami Chamber of Commerce's congressional forum, which despite the structured environment -- the participants already know the questions -- still may provide some drama.

A recent poll conducted for WSCV Telemundo 51 suggests Democratic challengers Raul Martinez and Joe Garcia coming within 5 points of incumbent Republican Reps. Lincoln Diaz-Balart and Mario Diaz-Balart, with large numbers of undecided voters. Neither the brothers nor incumbent Rep. Ileana Ros-Lehtinen polled above 50 percent.

And if a Kendall Federation of Homeowner Associations meet-and-greet on Monday was any indication, Wednesday's forum should be hopping.

All but Ros-Lehtinen attended the West Kendall meeting, where fireworks erupted between Mario Diaz-Balart and challenger Garcia, the former Miami-Dade Democratic party chief.

Diaz-Balart accused Garcia of not living in the district he hopes to represent -- an allegation Garcia denies because though he lives in Miami Beach, he says he has an apartment in the district. Garcia then countered that Diaz-Balart had dropped out of college. Diaz-Balart called that a nonissue Tuesday, saying in an interview that he left the University of South Florida in Tampa to go to work and has never claimed to have graduated.

Supporters of both campaigns interrupted the meeting for several minutes at a time, cheering their candidate and jeering the other.

Though the Diaz-Balarts and Martinez and Garcia have agreed to TV debates, Ros-Lehtinen has not agreed to debate challenger Annette Taddeo, who has criticized the congresswoman for her reluctance.

Taddeo noted that Wednesday could be the sole opportunity for the two to face off. ''That's very tough to do, an entire race in four or five questions,'' she said. ``We're going to try to turn it into more of a debate.''

Controversy over the format of the chamber event erupted last week when the original moderator, WPLG-ABC 10 political commentator Michael Putney, dropped out, calling it ''a farce'' because all six candidates would be shown the questions in advance.

Putney had hoped to ask the candidates unscripted questions but said he was told by Chamber President Barry Johnson that some of the candidates had asked to preview the queries. None of the six said they had asked for the questions.

Garcia on Saturday sent a letter to Johnson -- and also to Mario Diaz-Balart -- asking for the organizers to scrap the questions and turn the event into a real debate.

Carlos Curbelo, a spokesman for Mario Diaz-Balart, called the letter a ''cheap gimmick'' and said Diaz-Balart would ``agree to whatever format the organizers deem appropriate.''

A spokeswoman for the chamber said Tuesday it was sticking with its original format and noted the questions had been submitted by its members. ''These are the questions that our members want the answers to,'' Lorraine Reigosa said.

WTVJ NBC6 senior political reporter Nick Bogert will sub for Putney. He said he believed the forum would allow the candidates to ``challenge each other sufficiently so that the differences in their positions will be clear.''

NBC6 and Telemundo 51 plan to stream the event live on their websites. To watch it, go to www.nbc6.net or www.telemundo51.com.

The South Florida AFL-CIO plans to protest the event, because the Republicans didn't participate in an earlier union debate, citing scheduling conflicts.

One point of contention inside the hall is likely to be last week's congressional bailout of Wall Street, which the Diaz-Balarts opposed. Martinez was also against the bill, while Garcia called it imperfect but supported it.

Ros-Lehtinen rejected the first version of the package and later voted for the second -- with Taddeo slamming her for flip-flopping. Taddeo said Monday that she opposed the measure.

A Mason-Dixon poll released Tuesday suggests voters, too, have mixed feelings about the bailout, with 48 percent supporting it and 38 percent opposed. Another 14 percent were undecided.

Miami Herald staff writers Lesley Clark and Luisa Yanez contributed to this report.

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