The Democratic and Republican candidates in Tennessee’s U.S. Senate race were in the Bluff City Sunday for their fifth and final debate before the Nov. 5 election.
Republican Lamar Alexander and Democrat Bob Clement squared off at a debate sponsored by WREG Channel 3, The Commercial Appeal, MPACT Memphis and AARP.
The candidates are vying for the seat being vacated by U.S. Senator and University of Memphis graduate Fred Thompson (R-Tenn.) after he announced he would not seek another term following eight years in office.
The hour-long debate consisted of two parts. During the first 30-minute session candidates fielded questions from a panel that consisted of Susan Adler Thorpe, political columnist from The Commercial Appeal; Channel 3 commentator Norman Brewer; and Nicole Lacey of MPACT, a group of young professionals. The candidates questioned each other in the second half of the debate.
The debate focused on the slumping economy, the looming war with Iraq, race and who is running the dirtiest campaign. Neither candidate went into great detail and both spent most of their time trading accusations over business deals.
The debate was a chance for Alexander, 62, to pad his double-digit lead in the polls and the last real chance for Clement, 59, to make a comeback.
Alexander seemed to catch Clement off guard when he asked the 5th Congressional District representative why he did not support his nomination of the state’s first African-American justice to the Tennessee Supreme Court. The judge was Memphian George H. Brown Jr., and the Democratic nominee defeated him in an election for the post.
Clement said he was not in a position in government that had any control over the vote and therefore had no say in the nomination.
Later, the debate, like much of the entire campaign, became mired in dueling accusations.
Clement asked Alexander, “How would you rate the performance of Don Sundquist as governor?” Alexander said, “Bob - that’s a pretty cute question with a lot of smears in the middle of it.”
Clement has repeatedly questioned lucrative business deals Alexander has been involved in. In a previous debate in Jackson, Clement pulled a dollar bill from his pocket. When Alexander refused to take the money, Clement told the audience if they had never seen Alexander turn down money they just did.
Alexander has responded to Clement’s criticisms by raising questions about the Democrat’s involvement in the worst bank failure in the state’s history. Alexander has produced a picture showing Clement sitting with the board of directors of a key bank in the defunct Butcher bank empire. Clement has repeatedly denied that he ever served on the board of Jake and C. H. Butcher’s City & County Bank of Knox County. He said he was simply acting in an “advisory role.”
When responding to a question about mud slinging campaigns, Clement said, “The mud is the insider deals. The mud is the golden parachute deals. The slinging is slinging the truth.”
Alexander said, “We have North Korea with nuclear weapons and a possible war with Iraq and (Clement) wants to talk about old business deals.”
Both candidates found common ground when it comes to Iraq, North Korea and new gun control measures.
Both supported President Bush’s policy toward Iraq although Clement said he would like to see Bush “work with the United Nations.”
Each candidate said they oppose a preemptive military strike on North Korea following that country’s admission that it has been secretly working on a nuclear weapons program - although it agreed not do so in 1994.
And each candidate said they oppose additional gun control measures - including one that records a gun’s ballistic “fingerprint.” That proposed legislation has recently gained attention because of the sniper shootings around the nation’s capital.
