While Fourth Congressional District Republican candidate Sean Bielat continued to challenge Democrat Joseph Kennedy III’s experience, he was hit hard with questions about the Paul Ryan budget, women’s rights and partisanship during their third debate at Wellesley College Monday night.
Jo-Ann Berry, co-chair of the League of Women Voters of Massachusetts’ Citizen Education Committee, moderated the debate, which was sponsored by Wellesley College and LWV and featured questions from the League and Wellesley students.
Early in the debate, Bielat hit a bump in the road when Wellesley students asked him if he supported women’s rights.
“I’m pro-life,” Bielat said in a live stream of the debate on the Wellesley College website. “I think, though, when I hear women’s issues, I hear the issues that matter to us all. I hear ‘How are we going to pay our bills? How are we going to make sure we have jobs? How are our families going to grow and prosper?’ Those are all women’s issues.”
Kennedy responded by telling the audience what they could expect if Republicans gained control of Congress.
“Let’s be realistic about what a Republican-led Congress means and the impacts that that has on women’s health,” he said, citing 10 initiatives the current Congress has brought up to reduce a woman’s access to healthcare and abortions.
Partisanship played a large role in the debate, which seeped into discussions about the national budget and healthcare.
Kennedy brought up the “Ryan budget” many times, saying that his opponent supports it despite its flaws.
“Putting the specifics and the [tax] cuts aside, I think, Sean, it is fair to say that you have embraced the framework of the Ryan budget,” Kennedy said. “And the framework of the Ryan budget is big cuts and big tax breaks, and that is not reflective of a society where each of us has to do our part.”
Although audience members were told questions should address both candidates, several audience questions singled out Bielat during the night, questioning his bipartisanship and his reasons for running.
One audience member asked whether Bielat could resist being a “whole-sale Republican” if he represented a largely democratic state.
“I don’t know where you heard that I was a whole-sale Republican … It is certainly true that more of my ideas and beliefs align with the Republican party,” he said.
Bielat told the audience that he had not received much aid from his party, and said Kennedy’s politics were more in line with the Democratic Party than his were with the Republican Party.
Bielat said trying to link himself to Paul Ryan was a Democratic Party message, and the talking points Kennedy uses are straight out of the book.
“Listen to Obama, listen to the next debate, you’ll hear ‘Paul Ryan this, Paul Ryan that,’” he said.
Bielat also called claims that he supports the Ryan budget “debatable at best.”
Bielat praised “Romney-care” in Massachusetts but then said that the Affordable Care Act, known by many as “Obamacare,” was harming the job market.
“I would say that one of the sources of unpredictability is the Affordable Care Act,” Bielat said. “Many small business owners have told me over and over, ‘I don’t know what’s coming.’ And one of the things they always say is, ‘I don’t know how the Affordable Care Act is going to affect my business and I don’t know what it’s going to do if I hire more people, so I’m not.’”
But people in the audience also targeted Kennedy in their questions, as a Wellesley resident asked if Kennedy’s campaign would be a joke if his name did not have “Kennedy” attached to it.
After Kennedy pointed out his service record with the Peace Corp., Bielat again stressed that he did not believe Kennedy had the experience for the office.
“I wouldn’t say that Joe’s candidacy is a joke,” he said. “I would say that he doesn’t come to the table with enough experience.”
With three weeks until Election Day, the two candidates recently scheduled a final debate to air on Oct. 24 at 7 a.m. It will be the only live televised debate before the election, according to a press release from the Bielat campaign.
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