Candidates vying for Connecticut's 2nd District Congressional seat sparred at Eastern Connecticut State University on Thursday night.
With less than two weeks before the election, each candidate got in their last jabs.
Democrating incumbent Joe Courtney is trying to keep his job, but he'll have to get past the Republican candidate, former television anchor Janet Peckinpaugh and Green party candidate Scott Deshefy.
Deshefy got everybody's attention by knocking both Courtney and Peckinpaugh.
"You have to chose between two. Me, the scientist, or the joint toxicity of a career politician and a teleprompter reader," Deshefy quipped.
"We have a spending problem in this country, not a revenue problem, but a spending problem," Peckinpaugh explained.
"We adopt the budget rules of the 1990s to get the public finances in balance. Unfortunately the Bush administration and their allies blew them up sky high," Courtney said.
Politics
Peckinpaugh criticized Courtney's vote on health care reform. She favors tort reform among other measures. Courtney defended the vote, calling it good policy.
The subject of television ads also came up. Courtney called Peckinpaugh's ads negative.
"We have maintained a positive approach in our message in our paid media in this campaign, both in radio and television, because I do believe we have a problem with turning off people," Courtney said.
Peckinpaugh said she only had enough cash for a week's worth of ads.
"Because I was only able to raise enough money to get on television for one week, I needed to point out how I'm different than my opponent," Peckinpaugh said.
The candidates did all agree on saving the sub base in Groton.
Courtney currently has a double-digit lead on Peckinpaugh as we head into the home stretch.
Courtney is seeking his third term as a 2nd District representative.
After the antics, the questions and answers were mostly related to the issues. The questions came from students at Eastern and they were mostly focused on the economy.
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