TALLAHASSEE Now running for a seat in the state Senate, Jim Norman used to talk to his millionaire political benefactor twice a day. Their philosophies on politics were nearly identical. They shared a passion for boxing. Sometimes they watched matches on television while they talked on the phone. He called benefactor Ralph Hughes 'a pillar of the community' who befriended him during his first bid for office. 'There can't be two closer individuals than Mr. Hughes and myself,' he said. That close relationship between the politician and the anti-tax millionaire businessman was one of many glimpses offered during testimony at an unusual trial Tuesday that could decide the political fate of Norman, currently a Hillsborough County commissioner. After a day of witnesses and motion hearings that stretched into the night, Leon County Circuit Judge Jackie Fulford had not issued a ruling whether Norman could stay on the Nov. 2 ballot. She said her order could come today. Still, the day's testimony revealed a friendship turned to rivalry, and the intrigue of a half-million-dollar payment the politician's wife said she used in 2006 to buy a lakefront house in northern Arkansas. To hear Mearline Norman tell it, Hughes thought he could make money investing with her in real estate even though she had tried other business ventures without success. The wife of the candidate said Hughes cut a $500,000 check to a bank account he had asked her to open. She was to use it for the cash purchase of an Arkansas corporate party house Hughes had never visited. She would renovate the house, sell it at a profit and split the proceeds two ways, she testified. But none of these terms were ever in writing. When Mrs. Norman asked Hughes about that, she said, he put her off. But then the real estate market tanked. Hughes died in 2008. And now that deal is the focus of a trial brought on by political rival Kevin Ambler, a state representative who lost to Norman in the Republican primary and now seeks to toss him from the general election to represent the District 12 of northern Hillsborough and central Pasco counties. At issue is whether Norman properly disclosed his financial holdings in order to qualify as a candidate in the first place. Norman testified that Ambler's recollection of meetings years ago where the two discussed the purchase was 'an absolute lie.' Mrs. Norman testified she met Hughes nearly 20 years ago at a campaign event, and they became friends. For Mrs. Norman, there was another shared interest besides politics: money, and how to make it. After leaving the paid work force in 1993 at her husband's request, Mrs. Norman said she dabbled in numerous unsuccessful business ventures. She considered real estate and commercial cleaning. She tried her hand at custom-built closets, but that did not make money, she said. With the run up of stock prices in the bull market, she began to invest, and Hughes was her mentor. Mrs. Norman said she and Hughes hatched the idea to invest in Arkansas real estate around 2005. 'I grew up there and I knew the area, and I knew there were some good investment properties that could be purchased there,' she said. She described Hughes as a very silent partner. Ambler tells a far different story. At one time, he and Norman were friends, he said. They had worked on each other's campaigns. And so it was not out of the ordinary for Ambler to get a phone call from Norman one night in 2005. Norman wanted legal advice about a house purchase, Ambler testified. 'He said it was an amazing lakefront property. It was listed at $600,000, furniture and all. It was an unbelievable opportunity,' Ambler said. He said Norman wanted to know 'how he could purchase the property if an uncle gave him the money or a parent gave him the money.' He also wanted to know how to title the property to protect his interest later on. Ambler said he discussed the option of setting up a limited partnership to buy the house, and went over other estate planning options as well. 'It seemed clear he didn't have the $600,000 himself, so he was looking to others,' Ambler said. Ambler also recalled in his testimony a visit to the Normans' Carrollwood home in 2006, after Mrs. Norman bought the house. Out came the 4-by-6 photographs of it. 'He was kind of like a giddy kid on Christmas morning,' Ambler said. 'He said, 'Look at the house I got. This is a dream house. This is amazing. We'll have to all get up there sometime.'?' When it came time for him to testify, Norman said the stories of his onetime friend were untrue. 'I don't use this word very often,' Norman testified. 'But I have never seen anybody lie like that in my life. 'It's an absolute lie.' Much of the trial was taken up by Mrs. Norman's testimony and questions from the judge and both sides' attorneys over her accounts. In exchange for her agreeing to not seek a job, Mrs. Norman said, her husband said she could spend $130,000 any way she chose. Both Normans said the pact was important so she could hold on to her independence while he pursued dual careers as a politician and a community liaison for the Salvation Army. 'That's why I'm married for 24 years,' Norman said. 'I trust and believe in my wife.' The judge wondered aloud about the arrangement, puzzled over their assertion that Mrs. Norman had been able to spend $100,000 of their shared funds on renovations to the Arkansas house without Norman's specific knowledge, and at the idea that the two spent 15-hour car rides to and from the house without discussing it. Norman testified that when he asked about the purchase, Hughes could be blunt. 'Butt out,' Norman said Hughes would tell him. 