Bayh, Young keep up biting attacks during Senate debate

INDIANAPOLIS (AP) - Democratic former Sen. Evan Bayh and Republican Rep. Todd Young criticized each other Tuesday in what has become an increasingly bitter campaign for Indiana's open U.S. Senate seat.

The candidates clashed during what could be their only debate, with Young arguing that Bayh accomplished little during his time as a senator and renewing his assaults on Bayh's work in Washington, D.C., since leaving the Senate six years ago.

"He's all talk," Young said. "He spent our money ... stimulus, Obamacare, things that Hoosiers don't want. That's the record of a D.C. insider."

Bayh didn't use the debate stage to defend his post-Senate work, which has been the subject of millions of dollars in attack ads from outside GOP groups including a super PAC tied with Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell and the billionaire Koch brothers.

Bayh referred several times to popular programs he supported during his time as Indiana governor from 1989 to 1997. Bayh also countered that he was proud to work with Republican former Sen. Richard Lugar to support the 2008 auto bailout that rescued carmakers General Motors and Chrysler.

Bayh criticized Young for campaigning against a program he said saved thousands of Indiana jobs.

"Congressman Young said let 'em go belly up," Bayh said. "We don't do that to our fellow Hoosiers."

Young frequently faulted Bayh for voting in favor of President Barack Obama's health care law, arguing it has raised costs and hurt care in the state.

Bayh countered that he wants to fix parts of the law and not allow insurance companies freedom to cancel policies as before the overhaul was adopted.

The Indiana campaign has become a key national race as Democrats try to capture the seat now held by retiring Republican Sen. Dan Coats and overturn the GOP's narrow Senate majority.

Young, who has held a southern Indiana congressional seat since 2010, has gone so far as to call Bayh "a fundamentally flawed person" during a news conference.

Bayh, the Democrats' prize Senate recruit, surprisingly entered the race in July with a huge fundraising lead over Young and sky-high name ID from his time as a popular governor and senator.

But he's been put on the defensive over his post-Senate work for a Washington law firm and private equity fund. Bayh earned nearly $6.3 million since the beginning of 2015, with about a third of the total coming from Apollo Global Management, a self-described alternative investment manager based in New York, according to financial disclosure records.