NEW ORLEANS – We're just under two months away from the U.S. Senate elections, and Tuesday night, the first debate got underway.
After fighting off claims that he was dodging the media, incumbent Sen. David Vitter, R-La., surfaced to square off against Democratic challenger Charlie Melancon and other independent candidates in a forum organized by the Alliance for Good Government at Loyola University.
Melancon and Vitter have been going after one another on various fronts, and debates, or lack thereof, have been recent points of contention between the two. Melancon has criticized Vitter, saying the incumbent has been dodging TV debates.
Melancon and Vitter agreed in their opposition of the deepwater drilling moratorium.
“I have strongly opposed the moratorium from the beginning and have been very active in trying to get it lifted, meeting literally weekly with administration officials,” Vitter said. “Ken Salazar, who I was a Senate classmate with, I have a good personal relation with.”
“I continue to talk to the White House. I continue to talk to the leadership to try and convince them that what they are doing is harmful to the economy and to the good job of this region along the Gulf Coast,” Melancon said.
They talked about various issues from government spending, to voting for the will of the people to voting for the party lines. On that topic, the two disagreed.
“I do work very hard to represent the people of Louisiana. That’s my job, not to represent any party,” Vitter said. “And the first step to that is to listen to the people. That’s why the very first commitment when I ran for the Senate six years ago was to hold a town hall in every parish of the state every Congress, and I’ve done that.”
“Unlike what Mr. Vitter has suggested that I vote with my party 87 percent of the time, in one year I did, because we were in some major problems trying to figure out how to get this country back on course,” Melancon said. “I’m ranked at 55 percent voting record for my party for the term that I’ve been in Congress. Mr. Vitter votes for his party 89 percent of the time.”
All told, the forum lasted about 40 minutes. It stayed civil; Melancon and Vitter never interrupted one another. They went through a series of questions between all of candidates, but the focus was on Melancon and Vitter.
Many of the other candidates, who labeled themselves as independents, seemed to go after Vitter, who has had a sizeable lead in the polls.
The election is Nov. 2. WWL-TV will present the final televised debate of the campaign on Thursday, Oct. 28.
