The two candidates running for the 7th Congressional District seat clashed in their first debate over which man could best bring a change of direction for the country.
Democrat Ed Perlmutter said the country was fed up with President Bush and the Republican Congress. He argued that his opponent would be a rubber stamp for Bush.
“I believe that this election is about changing the way we do business in America,” said Perlmutter, a former state senator. “We cannot continue to have more of the same.”
Republican Rick O’Donnell, the former head of the Colorado Commission on Higher Education, agreed that change was needed, but he said that he was the candidate with the ideas and the energy to bring about that change.
“We are going to get change with whomever because the incumbent congressman is not returning to Washington,” O’Donnell said. “The question is what type of change. I believe we need new ideas. We need real solutions. We need honesty.”
The two candidates are vying for the seat vacated by Republican Bob Beauprez, who is running for governor. The debate at the American Mountaineering Center in Golden drew about 200 people.
Perlmutter said that under Bush, America’s financial footing has eroded, the war in Iraq has turned out badly and the wealthiest 1 percent of the population benefited from Bush’s policies while the middle class suffered.
“One of my kids has epilepsy and for years and years and years and years there has been a line item in the National Institute for Health budget for epilepsy research, and that has been zeroed out because our budget is so upside down,” Perlmutter said.
Holding up a book detailing his positions, O’Donnell encouraged people to examine his stances and compare them to Perlmutter’s.
“Listening to my opponent tonight, I think he could be running for congress in Florida, or Georgia or Michigan,” O’Donnell said. “It’s the national Democrat playbook, rubber stamp, impugn the Bush administration, be angry about everything that’s wrong with Washington.”
He said that when he checked Perlmutter’s website, he found “zero on education, zero on economic growth and zero on jobs creation and zero on how to fix Social Security.”
Perlmutter touted his experience as a legislator, stressing his work on local transportation issues and growth-control legislation and his successful effort to pass a bond issue and mill levy for Jefferson County schools.
O’Donnell pointed to his record with Gov. Bill Owens administration, where he was policy director, head of the Department of Regulatory Agencies and eventually head of the Colorado Commission on Higher Education.
“I come to this race with a track record of reform,” O’Donnell said.
Staff writer Christopher N. Osher can be reached at 303-954-1747 or cosher@denverpost.com.
