Republican congressional candidate Rick O’Donnell blasted his Democratic opponent, Ed Perlmutter, Wednesday as soft on crime.
The two are vying for the 7th Congressional District seat.
“What we need in Congress is someone who is going to be tough on crime,” O’Donnell said. “What we don’t need in Congress is someone who is going to say one thing on the campaign trail and then do something different in office.”
During the debate, sponsored by the League of Women Voters, O’Donnell said Perlmutter was one of three state senators to vote against a bill to lift the statute of limitations on rape when DNA evidence could solve the crime.
He said Perlmutter also helped defeat a bill to allow schools and day-care centers to be notified when a sex offender lives nearby. And Perlmutter voted against background checks for teachers, O’Donnell said.
Perlmutter let the attacks go unanswered, but spokesman Scott Chase said after the debate that O’Donnell was distorting Perlmutter’s record.
“Ed has a proven track record of being tough on crime and protecting children,” Chase said. “You don’t get the endorsement of police unless you’re anything but tough on crime.”
During the debate, Perlmutter launched an attack of his own, questioning O’Donnell’s call to increase troops in Iraq.
“My opponent wants to add 75,000 troops to Iraq under a leadership that has bungled it from the very beginning,” Perlmutter said.
O’Donnell said he brought up the 75,000 figure earlier in the campaign, citing a number suggested by U.S. Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., but O’Donnell said he didn’t know if that was the proper troop level needed.
“We can’t leave a failed state with the third-largest oil reserves in the Middle East to become an even worse breeding ground for terrorists,” O’Donnell said.
Perlmutter continued to press on Iraq. “We’re spending $2 billion a week in Iraq right now,” he said. “Where are these 75,000 going to come from?”
