Brown said Schweitzer’s endorsement of Obama shows the incumbent governor is not really interested in protecting gun rights and digging for coal. He also said the universal health care plan advanced by the Democrats is wrong for Montana.
Montana Democrats, at times, have distanced themselves from national Democrats that weren’t very popular back home.
Brown, a state senator from Billings, clearly thinks he can take Schweitzer down a peg by comparing him to his party’s presidential candidate.
“The Obama-Schweitzer health care plan will be the most expensive system in the world,” Brown said on a question dealing with health care.
Later he took on Schweitzer’s National Rifle Association endorsement.
“Brian Schweitzer may be endorsed by the NRA ... but Barack Obama, who he said was the best man for Montana, was not endorsed by the NRA.”
Schweitzer, running for re-election, brushed aside the comparison n with the help of a partisan audience that booed Brown’s attempts. At the same time he mocked Brown’s own idea that a panel is needed to study health care issues.
“We don’t need a study in Montana,” Schweitzer said. “We need a national health care system that is affordable.”
Schweitzer said the next president will need to advance universal health care and stop the flow of money to pharmaceutical and insurance companies.
The incumbent touted achievements in his first term, such as a freeze on college tuition, tax rebates and energy development.
Brown focused on his desire to lower taxes, decrease government spending and develop more natural resources.
Libertarian Stan Jones said the first way he would cut spending would be to release as many as 20 percent of the state’s prisoners. He called it wrong for the country to imprison so many of its residents.
Jones added flair to the debate with his third-party message of reducing government, saying “there’s not a dime’s worth of difference between the Democrats and the Republicans” on key issues.
The Libertarian and perennial candidate from Bozeman also interfered with Brown’s attempt to renew an attack on Schweitzer over a speech last summer. Schweitzer has faced criticism for seemingly taking credit for election tampering.
But Jones, who took issue with Schweitzer on several topics, defended the governor and agreed with the explanation that it was a joke.
“However, just reviewing it ... it is obvious he was joking,” Jones said. “Why make so much political hay out of it?”
Other highlights:
- Brown said Schweitzer did not really cut taxes with a rebate, challenging voters to look at their income and property tax bills.
- Brown said Schweitzer’s claims of energy development are exaggerated.
- Brown and Schweitzer disagreed sharply on whether state law lets people take guns on college campuses with a concealed carry permit.
- Schweitzer said he favored the death penalty for “heinous” crimes. Brown only went so far as to say he would follow state laws dealing with the death penalty.
- Brown and Jones both said they strongly oppose abortion. Schweitzer said the decision should be between women and their doctors.
- Schweitzer would not commit to another college tuition freeze and said he is waiting to propose his budget.
For more details on the debate, read Friday’s Missouolian and Missoulian.com
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