Democrat Kim Gillan and Republican Steve Daines clashed along partisan lines over the federal budget, health care and the best path to create jobs in the first debate in Montana’s U.S. House race Tuesday night.
Gillan, Daines and Libertarian Dave Kaiser addressed issues ranging from unrest in the Middle East to college aid during the generally tame debate in Missoula broadcast by Montana Public Media.
The candidates are seeking to replace Rep. Denny Rehberg, a Republican who passed up a chance for another term to challenge Democrat U.S. Sen. Jon Tester.
But whereas the Tester-Rehberg race has been dominated by a flood of negative advertisements and personal attacks, the House candidates largely stuck to the issues Tuesday, with the most conspicuous differences between them mirroring disagreements between the two major parties in Washington, D.C.
Daines, a Bozeman business executive, criticized the Obama administration’s Affordable Care Act as too costly. He warned that proposals to raise taxes on the wealthy would undercut job creation and insisted that major changes in Medicare are needed to keep it from going bankrupt.
Gillan, a 16-year member of the Montana Legislature, said the middle class should not be asked to bear the burden of the nation’s budget woes. And she repeatedly highlighted Daines’ support for the budget plan of Republican vice presidential candidate Paul Ryan.
She mentioned Ryan at least nine times, differentiating what she characterized as the GOP’s radical budget plan from her “common sense” approach to crafting compromises in the Legislature.
“We need to have realistic, centrist proposals to start with, not ideological opinions, which is what Ryan’s approach is,” Gillan said in response to a question about problems facing Medicare.
“What you need to do is elect proven problem solvers who will go there and recognize we need to start from the center,” she added.
But Daines did not shy away from the tie to Ryan, saying his plan to set up a voucher system for Medicare is needed to keep the health care system for the elderly from sliding into bankruptcy by the middle of next decade.
“We have a problem that is festering and needs to be dealt with,” Daines said. “I’m proud of the fact that Paul Ryan has put a plan in place and we’re starting to have a good discussion over it.”
Daines avoided direct mention of his opponents but derided “politicians who say anything to get elected” in an apparent reference to Gillan’s years in the Legislature.
The most pointed criticisms of the night came from Libertarian Kaiser, who said his opponents were sure to be beholden to their parties rather than the voters of Montana if elected.
Kaiser has said he came to Montana three years ago to get into the restaurant business only to see his ambitions frustrated by economic problems he blames on political gridlock.
“If you look at any of the problems in Washington, a lot of them are because of Washington,” he said.
Political analyst Craig Wilson from Montana State University-Billings said the generally civil nature of the debate played more to Daines’ advantage, given that he’s regarded as the front-runner and led Gillan in a voter survey taken last week by Lee Newspapers of Montana.
“Generally you would say she had to go on the attack. I don’t think she went on the attack. There weren’t any zingers,” Wilson said.
But Wilson added that both candidates are “swimming uphill” with relatively poor name recognition. Daines lost a bid for lieutenant governor in 2008. Gillan has not previously run for statewide office.
Democrats are seeking to take back a seat they lost back in 1996, when former Rep. Pat Williams chose not to run after nine terms.
On the fundraising side, Daines outraised Gillan by a 3-to-1 margin through the end of June, when candidates filed their last reports with the Federal Election Commission. Their next reports are due to be released in mid-October.
Two more debates are scheduled in the House race in the weeks leading up to the Nov. 6 election.