Second Congressional District candidates Ron Barber and Martha McSally faced off for the first time in the 2014 election campaign Tuesday, neither giving an inch on their positions or criticisms of one another's records or promises.
Barber, the incumbent Democrat seeking a second full term, and McSally, a retired Air Force fighter pilot, are in a rematch of the 2012 campaign, which Barber won by less than one percentage point.
They squared off Tuesday at Arizona Public Media in an hour-long forum broadcast live on TV, radio and online, and picked up and carried live nationally by C-SPAN.
Barber accused McSally of flip-flopping on issues, including Medicare and Social Security, while McSally pointed to Barber's record of voting with his Democratic colleagues 80 percent of the time in a Congress that is getting little done.
Both said they would go against their political parties if it were for the community's benefit.
"I went to Congress saying that I would be an independent voice for the Southern Arizonans that I represent, and I have done that," Barber said. "I have stood up to the president and to my party any time it is important to vote for a bill that made sense for the people back home."
McSally said she doesn't think Barber has been bipartisan, saying he has voted outside his party only 20 percent of the time.
"We have had plenty of times to see ... Mr. Barber ... when push comes to shove, line up with (U.S. House Minority Leader) Nancy Pelosi," McSally said. "Now, we have a record, and people are in a worse situation than they were before. People are looking for a fresh face."
McSally said diversity is what makes CD2 interesting and that she looks forward to representing all members of the community, not just those in her party.
Barber said he didn't think so.
"If you look at what she represents - she wants to privatize Social Security, she wants to turn Medicare into a voucher system, she wants to destroy our education system ... make sure women don't have the right to make their own health care decisions. That is party line," he said.
McSally called those claims false, saying she never called for privatizing Social Security or turning Medicare into a voucher program. She said a 2012 comment she made expressing support for a Republican budget proposal that included the Medicare idea was taken out of context.
Barber said McSally is now trying to sound moderate because the general election is rapidly approaching.
"She needs to be truthful with the voters of Southern Arizona...that kind of slipping and sliding is easily seen. You cannot fool the voters," Barber said.
McSally said Barber was late to the table in working to save the A-10 aircraft at Davis-Monthan Air Force Base, quoting him as saying it was safe shortly before it appeared on a Pentagon budget cutting list. Barber said his comment at the time had a broader context.
She said he has had three years in Congress to improve border security and the immigration system and has not gotten it done. Barber countered by saying he favored the bipartisan immigration reform bill that passed the Senate in 2013 but got nowhere in the Republican-controlled House.
The two will meet in one more forum, Tuesday, Oct. 14, sponsored by the Sierra Vista Chamber of Commerce.
Early voting in the election begins Friday.
In 2012, Barber beat McSally by 2,454 votes, 0.84 percent, after a ballot count that took more than a week to complete.
Barber was Gabrielle Giffords' district director in Tucson when she was in Congress. He and Giffords were among 13 people wounded in the Jan. 8, 2011 Tucson mass shooting, in which six others died. After Giffords resigned from Congress in January 2012, Barber won a special election for her seat.
McSally is a retired Air Force colonel who was an A-10 pilot and the first U.S. woman combat pilot. She also commanded a squadron of A-10s at Davis-Monthan. When in the military, she won a challenge to the Pentagon's requirement that women serving in Saudi Arabia wear head scarves when off base.
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