Senate candidates try to focus on issues

Government spending and national security, as well as preparedness for the state's most prestigious office, took center stage at the major-party U.S. Senate candidates' third and final debate Wednesday night.

Republican Mark Kirk, a Highland Park Republican, told Chicago Tonight host and moderator Phil Ponce that “most people would credit” the bank bailout with stopping a national emergency.

Alexi Giannoulias, a Chicago Democrat, has criticized the legislation repeatedly, saying he would have liked to see more oversight placed on banks, but he said Wednesday “nothing has changed,” that he would have voted for the package.

Ponce prodded Kirk over a statement he's made that the “stimulus package largely failed,” asking him if that meant it succeeded in some ways.

“Obviously when you spend a trillion dollars, you'll get something back,” Kirk said.

He said one of the key mistakes was the program limited all infrastructure to “shovel ready” projects.

While he noted the stimulus did “re-asphalt some suburban roads,” he said other projects, such as O'Hare modernization, should have gotten funding.

He said the package's “lasting legacy” will be a “trillion-dollar deficit to our kids.”

Giannoulias called Kirk's comments “remarkable to hear,” noting that the five-term congressman had voted for every one of the budgets under President George Bush.

“When (President) Barack Obama gets in office, now you're (saying we're) spending too much money,” Giannoulias charged.

He said the stimulus, officially called the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act, was not a flawless vehicle.

The candidates' exchanges, cordial at first, quickly became more and more acid-tongued.

At several points, Kirk and Giannoulias interrupted one another, arguing over who was more of a “flip-flopper” on the issues and which personal issues the collapse of Giannoulias' family bank or Kirk's exaggerated military record revealed more of a character flaw.

Kirk called Giannoulias' handling of the Bright Start college savings program “reckless,” accusing him of misleading families by encouraging them to invest in failing funds.

Giannoulias disputed that accusation, noting he did the best he could as the 2008 market took enormous losses and that the program is now one of the top five college saving programs in the country.

“The facts aren't there,” he said.

Giannoulias said he agrees with the president's timetable for withdrawing troops from Afghanistan starting in July 2011.

He said he believes that a “strictly military approach to the region has never worked.” Instead, he advocated encouraging more economic development in the region, engaging local and international stakeholders, and downsizing our troop deployment as quickly as possible.

Kirk disagreed.

“I think it will take longer than the president has planned,” he said.

Kirk said he thinks Gen. David Petraeus will come forward recommending an extension to that deadline, one he hopes the president will follow.

With just five days left in the extremely close race for the Senate seat previously held by Obama, Giannoulias announced he would be “going positive” from this point forward.

He admitted he has no control over ads produced and paid for by the Democratic Party, but he said he was “calling on everyone to pull negative ads.”

Asked by Ponce at the beginning of the debate what kind words each could say about his opponent, Kirk noted Giannoulias called him when Kirk's stepfather died.

Giannoulias called Kirk a hard worker.

Debate: Giannoulias supports troop timetable, Kirk doesn't