The final debate between the four democratic candidates for Massachusetts’ vacant U.S. Senate seat saw Attorney General Martha Coakley, who has led in recent polls, remain collected and largely unscathed while U.S. Rep. Michael Capuano, D-Somerville, and Boston Celtics co-owner Stephen Pagliuca butted heads on issues such as the financial crisis, health care and the war.
Over the course of the televised hour, the four candidates, also including Alan Khazei, founder of the nonprofit City Year, defended their own backgrounds and personal approaches in the final push before the primary election Tuesday, when voters will choose a Democrat and a Republican to face off in January’s special election.
Pagliuca, who has never held public office and relies on his extensive business background, is personally wealthy and has put forth millions of his own money to fund his campaign ‘- a fact that Capuano was eager to bring up during financial discussions, including one on the fate of America’s large banks.
‘We’re simply trying to limit them and spread the wealth,’ Capuano said when Pagliuca disagreed with the others, saying the banks had to maintain a competitively large scale. ‘Concentrated wealth is a little more in your life than anyone else’s, and I respect that.’
Exchanges between Pagliuca and Capuano, seated next to each other between Coakley and Khazei, repeatedly culminated in shouting matches, with Capuano at one point calling Pagliuca’s response ‘childish.’
Pagliuca became riled during a discussion of the provision attached to the health care reform that would prevent federal funding of abortions, which some have said will force women to revert to ‘back-alley abortions’ and which Coakley said was a litmus test for her on the bill.
‘This is not about back alleys, this is about funding,’ he said, comparing the idea of ‘back-alley abortions’ to Sarah Palin’s assertions that the bill’s senior care provisions would be ‘death panels.’
Capuano said Pagliuca’s argument was simply ‘wrong.’
‘It’s amazing, the rewrite of history that I keep hearing,’ he said.
‘You’re going to be the Sarah Palin of the Democratic Party,’ Pagliuca told Capuano, who laughed. ‘You already are.’
Coakley, who has led in recent polls, was comparatively calm and steered mostly clear of skirmishes.
She defended her comparison of the war in Afghanistan to Vietnam War, which she had reiterated just before President Barack Obama denied it in his speech announcing the troop surge.
‘You can still draw the analogy between getting involved in a country overseas that doesn’t have the ability to work with us,’ she said. ‘The lessons learned in Vietnam are very important here.’
All opposed a potential ‘war tax’ that would fund the continued Afghan effort except Khazei, who said he believed the entire nation, not just the troops, should pay the price for the war.
Khazei also defended his rejection of all campaign contributions from Political Action Committees and lobbyists, a cornerstone of his campaign, though his opponents agreed that such contributions were a necessity that required oversight.
‘I’m a reformer,’ he said. ‘I’m starting from zero in this campaign, but you can’t say that you’re going to play in that pay to play system.’
New England Cable News moderator R.D. Sahl wrapped up the questions by telling the candidates that each had developed a particular reputation ‘- Coakley ‘too cold,’ Capuano ‘too hot,’ Khazei ‘too wonky’ and Pagliuca ‘too rich,’ and asking if each thought voters liked them.
‘ ‘I plead guilty to being passionate,’ Capuano said. ‘I believe more politicians should do that, to lead the world where we should go.’
‘I show my emotions,’ he said. ‘I actually hug people’
Coakley maintained the even-handed tact she took throughout the debate, saying it was up to voters to decide.
‘It’s a little like [Goldilocks and] the three bears, or the four bears,’ she said. ‘The voters are picky, they should be. It’s going to be personal choice.’
She also said she was surprised that a Boston Globe survey found she was the one voters most wanted to have a beer with.
‘I would have a beer with any one of these men,’ she said.
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