Otter, Preston meet in debate

BOISE – Democratic congressional challenger Naomi Preston and Republican incumbent Butch Otter clashed over the economy, taxes, health care and education Sunday night but found agreement on the war in Iraq and the use of pre-emptive military strikes.

Otter and Preston, in their only face-to-face debate of the campaign, said they would support whatever type of government Iraqis choose for themselves, even if it is one based on Islamic theocracy.

The opponents also agreed that the restructuring of America’s intelligence programs should make pre-emptive military action unnecessary except in extremely rare cases.

“In the present environment we’ve got, relative to where we are with the war in Iraq now and the war in Afghanistan, it would have to be overwhelming evidence for anybody to move in a pre-emptive strike,” Otter said.

The hourlong debate was sponsored by the Idaho League of Women Voters and the Idaho Press Club, and was broadcast statewide on Idaho Public Television.

“If we had overwhelming evidence that there was a threat, that would be the case, then I would agree,” Preston said.

Otter, 62, the four-term lieutenant governor seeking his third term in Congress, said he believed the Bush administration is on course toward successful elections in Iraq in January and eventual return of the country’s control to its citizens.

Peace, he said, is the overriding issue.

“I think anything that will engage that country in democracy is what we’re interested in,” Otter said.

But he said a theocracy or any other form of government is acceptable if it is peaceful.

“As long as they’re at peace and keeping peace in the world, if they want to end up with something other than a democracy, I would be in favor of it,” he said.

Preston, 49, an Eagle businesswoman, said the decision of Iraqi citizens is paramount.

“I would be in favor of it if that’s what they vote for,” she said.

Preston is making her first run for elective office and had a stuttering start last spring when she pulled out of the race just before the May primary because of family concerns only to decide in June that she would take Otter on in the 1st District, which spans 600 miles from the Nevada border to Canada.

She took a jab at Otter for his expected bid for governor and the general belief that he is using the current campaign as a tune-up for his anticipated May 2006 primary race against Lt. Gov. James Risch for the GOP nomination for the state’s highest office.

“It seems that you are already running for governor,” Preston said, citing the 23 events Otter has had in the 2nd Congressional District of eastern and southern Idaho. He passed on another opportunity to debate Preston last week, and instead participated in a campaign bus tour to the Idaho Falls area.

But Otter said he was working on issues, such as nuclear energy research, critical to the Idaho National Engineering and Environmental Laboratory near Idaho Falls.

“Representing folks in Congress is a tremendous responsibility as, if you win, you will find out,” he told Preston, “and you have to make choices. And choices of representing the people are more important than politics or debating.”

Both candidates expressed concerns about the Rock Creek Mine, proposed upstream from Lake Pend Oreille in Montana.

“Idaho should have a significant say in this, because Idaho would get a significant amount of the waste material from this mine,” Preston declared.

“I think we need to fight the mine.”

Otter didn’t go that far. “I think that the state of Idaho has already been working with the state of Montana and the Rock Creek Mine folks to gain all the assurances that we can that we will not have a pollution problem,” he said.

“However, I would say that if there’s any evidence that … whatever effluent comes out of Montana into Idaho, if it’s not of a pristine nature, that we ought to resist that mine going in, until they prove to us that the technology is of such a degree that we don’t have to worry.”

He added, “If we don’t have that assurance, we ought not be in any way supporting the Rock Creek Mine.”

When the two candidates questioned each other, Preston asked Otter if he’d had a flu shot, and he said yes.

“The president hasn’t had a flu shot – how did you get ahead of him in line?” Preston asked.

Otter said a message went out to Congress that flu shots were available a week before the problems with vaccine supply surfaced.

“I wandered over to the attending physician’s office and got my flu shot,” he said. “I’d give it back again if I could do that.”

When Otter asked Preston about the Patriot Act, she said she agreed with his opposition to much of the act, but couldn’t name a specific section she would fight.

The two also clashed on immigration issues.

Preston accused Otter of wanting to treat all undocumented workers like terrorists, but Otter said he sees no reason to accommodate people who entered the country illegally, and particularly opposes any amnesty program for illegal immigrants.

“I’m not going to reward them for breaking the law,” he said.

“There’s plenty of legal ways to get into the United States. All they need to do is stand in line like everybody else.”