NEW ORLEANS -- With only days to go before Louisiana's U.S. Senate election, incumbent David Vitter and challenger Charlie Melancon went head-to-head Thursday night in their final, live televised debate hosted by WWL-TV.
In the hour-long debate, broadcast statewide and nationally on C-SPAN, a panel of journalists questioned the candidates about their past, present and future plans.
One question Vitter repeatedly dodged had to do with whether he broke the law when he was linked to a D.C. prostitution ring in 2007. When a panelist told Vitter he would give him the opportunity to say "yes" or "no" and explain himself, Vitter responded, "I'm not going to take that opportunity, because I think the voters of Louisiana have understood exactly what I said to them."
"You've lied, broken the law, and embarrased the state," responded Melancon.
But when asked whether he would apologize for a controversial anti-immigration campaign ad that some groups found offensive, Vitter was quick to offer up an answer.
"The one thing in the ad that is offensive is Melancon's votes," said Vitter, saying that Melancon voted against laws that would clamp down on illegal immigration.
But Melancon maintained he has a strong stance against illegal immigration.
"I have been a staunch hawk on immigration," said Melancon.
Vitter accused Melancon of false attacks as well.
"There's a list of untruths, and its long. But the number one is that I wanted to limit BP's liability," said Vitter.
And the panel pressed Melancon on whether a trip to Antarcticato study global warming was a good use of taxpayer dollars.
" We met with scientists," Melancon said. "We were up at 5:30 a.m."
After the debate, Melancon stayed to answer questions from the press, but Vitter left soon after the debate ended.
A statewide poll released by WWL-TV this week showed Vitter with a commanding lead over Melancon leading into Tuesday's election.
