Republican Andy Harris and Democrat Frank Kratovil tangled fiercely over campaign funding, Iraq, energy, immigration and the environment Tuesday night in what may be the only real debate in the 1st Congressional District contest.
At Salisbury University’s Holloway Hall, they accused each other of misrepresenting the opponent’s record, taking campaign money from tainted special interests and being out of step with the district long represented by Wayne Gilchrest – whom Harris defeated in the GOP primary leading him to throw his weight behind Kratovil.
The crowd of about 600 was filled with partisans who repeatedly clapped, hooted and howled for their favorite candidate. But there were clearly more supporters for Kratovil, the Queen Anne’s County state’s attorney, than for Harris, a Baltimore County state senator, who took the brunt of the audience’s abuse when he went on the attack against Kratovil or espoused conservative positions.
Libertarian Richard Davis, a Hurlock, Md. dentist who will also appear on the ballot, often seemed the innocent bystander at a street brawl as he laid out general positions that differed markedly with the two parties.
Asked about the financial bailout legislation that failed in the House of Representatives Monday, all three candidates were critical of the bill.
“It didn’t protect the taxpayer” enough, Kratovil said. “Any plan must make sure that taxpayers benefit from it in the long run.”
Harris said he was opposed to using taxpayers’ dollars “to bail out fat cats.”
“The cause of our problems are the liberal policies of the past,” and are “a direct result of liberal Democrats,” Harris said.
Kratovil quipped, “We ought to count how many times [Harris] says liberal in this debate,” as the Republican repeatedly tried to tie Kratovil to “liberal” Democratic policies. Kratovil said later Harris’s tactics were typical of the failed partisan politics that he hoped he could help cure in Washington.
Harris criticized the campaign contributions that Kratovil has taken from defense attorneys who represent “vile criminals” such as drug dealers and sex offenders.
Kratovil in turn tried to tie Harris to Wall Street interests because he was heavily supported in the primary by independent ads by the Club for Growth, a group embracing lower taxes and lower government spending.
The candidates were divided sharply on Iraq. “It was a mistake,” Kratovil said. “We went in alone without any support” and the U.S. should now “end the occupation” but “do it a responsible way.”
Harris said, “The question is not whether you go in, but what you do when you’re there.”
“Iraq was liberated by American soldiers,” said Harris, who made several references to his service as a doctor in the Navy Reserves. Calling it an occupation “is an insult to our men and women,” he said.
“We’re moving in the right direction” now, though we weren’t earlier in the war, Harris said.
Davis said, “I believe it was wrong to go into Iraq” and we should now let the Iraqis vote on whether they want us there.
On immigration, Harris said Kratovil had supported amnesty because of he once mentioned his support of the immigration reform bill that stalled in Congress last year. Kratovil said, “I do not support giving any benefits to anything to illegal immigrants.”
Kratovil attacked Harris’s voting record on the environment and the bay, but Harris, who is given low marks by environmental groups, said, “I have a long record of protecting the bay.”
“Reasonable folks can differ” on environmental solutions, Kratovil said. “His record demonstrates he’s not reasonable.”
