Grant, Sali take combative tone in final debate

BOISE – At the final debate between the candidates vying to represent Idaho’s 1st Congressional District, Republican Bill Sali flashed the combative edge that has become a topic of negative advertisements, challenging his Democratic opponent, Larry Grant, on issues from abortion to immigration.

Grant appeared staid, repeatedly replying, “Well, Bill got it wrong again,” after attacks from his opponent in the debate that also featured United Party candidate Andy Hedden-Nicely and independent Dave Olson.

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

The winner of the election will succeed Republican Rep. C.L. “Butch” Otter, who is running for governor.

The evening got off to an awkward start when Sali insisted on reading a statement tarring Grant as liberal and comparing him to Bill Clinton, despite objections from the moderator, who twice told Sali that opening remarks were not allowed.

Throughout the debate, Grant directed many answers toward his pledge to reverse deficit spending and what he called mismanagement of the war in Iraq.

“We ought to be up here debating about jobs, debating about education and health care,” he said. “But this country is so bogged down in debt and war that we can’t.”

Sali, an eight-term state legislator from Kuna, holds a party advantage. President Bush carried the district with 68 percent of the vote in 2004.

But Grant, a Democrat from Fruitland and a former executive at Micron Technology Inc., appears to have narrowed the margin. The race has attracted attention from national Republican groups, while taking a hostile turn in the final weeks.

Last week, the Club for Growth, an anti-tax lobbying group based in Washington, D.C., paid $180,000 to air ads throughout the district that liken Grant to House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi.

The National Republican Congressional Committee also spent more than $100,000 on attack ads against Grant last week. On Monday, Grant fired back, running a spot that recalls harsh quotes from Idaho Republicans critical of Sali’s corrosive debating style in the Legislature.

When asked why national Democratic organizations have not chipped in on his behalf, Grant said 43 to 44 House races are “highly competitive.” Nationally, Democrats have to make tough decisions, he said.

“If you’re in Washington, D.C., Idaho doesn’t float to the top of what you’d think of as Democratic place,” he said.

Sali was asked to explain his payment of more than $120,000 in campaign money to Spartac LLC of Meridian, a media consulting company founded last year by an Eagle attorney who represents the group seeking to place a Ten Commandments monument in a Boise city park.

The lawyer, Christ Troupis, has only used that money to offer media advice and polling, Sali said.

“As far as I know, none of the money given from my campaign has gone to anything other than services to me,” he said.

On the war in Iraq, Sali said predictions from top generals on Monday show that Iraqi defense forces will be able to replace American troops in fewer than 18 months.

“This idea that we are staying the course during the middle of the process was the right idea to follow,” Sali said. “And we are almost done with that process now.”

Grant said the Bush administration needs to re-evaluate its goals and speed the process of turning over the government and military to Iraqis, even if their political beliefs make Americans skittish.

“Instead of disarming local militias we should be recruiting them,” he said. “I don’t want to be the first one to tell the administration this, but when you occupy a country that’s 60 percent Shiite, you’re not likely to get a government that looks like a Christian republic friendly to the U.S.”

The two major-party candidates also disagreed on the environment, with Sali saying the federal government should put “roads back in roadless areas.” The Republican said he was “not ready” to say whether he believed in global warming.

Grant said regardless of whether the phenomenon exists, the government should boost alternative fuels to cut warming. He said he supports protecting some areas of Idaho from logging and snowmobiles. He said he would support a bill from Rep. Mike Simpson, R-Idaho, to declare the area around the Boulder-White Cloud Mountains as protected wilderness, while Sali would kill the measure.

Sali charged that Grant supports gay marriage and abortion, saying Grant declared himself “pro-choice” at a nontelevised debate.

“Well, Bill got it wrong again,” Grant responded. “I don’t know anyone who supports abortion. … But I do believe government should get out of our lives.”