In a freewheeling, contentious debate Tuesday night, Republican Mitt Romney and Democrat Shannon O'Brien tangled over abortion rights, taxes, the death penalty and who will best solve the Massachusetts budget crisis.
The two leading candidates' final face-off before the election on Nov. 5 was marked by familiar campaign themes, though the format allowed for some more substantive exchanges on issues. Neither yielded an inch to the other during the hour-long debate, which was broadcast live on Boston's major television stations.
The debate reflected the tense feelings the bruising battle has generated between the two candidates and featured few lighter moments or respites from the negative campaign rhetoric.
The two also engaged in an aggressive back-and-forth over their records in the private sector. O'Brien accused Romney of making huge profits as a venture capitalist while hurting workers. He pointed to her two years as a vice president of a health-care firm whose executive was indicted for Medicare fraud, saying she "looked the other way" rather than taking action.
The debate at Suffolk University Law School, which was sponsored by the Boston Herald and moderated by Tim Russert of NBC's "Meet the Press," was billed by analysts as a pivotal event for both candidates as they make their final push to election day. Each sought to refine the messages they will use over the next several days.
O'Brien, saying Romney had the "the wrong set of values" to lead the state, pitched herself as the candidate who could relate better to Massachusetts voters. Romney, who has painted O'Brien as a captive of the state's political establishment, made a special plea to independent voters — a key voting bloc in this election — saying he could best bring change to the State House.
Perhaps the dominant issue in the debate was the state's current fiscal crisis, a problem that Russert pressured the two to detail how they would solve it. Romney repeatedly said O'Brien would raise taxes.
"Everybody knows that if you are elected, we're going to have another massive tax increase," Romney told O'Brien. "Your position on taxes is so screaming loud that I can't even hear your voice."
O'Brien acknowledged that she would consider signing a tax hike if it were necessary to save education, health care and other essential services from major fundings cuts. But she contended that her position was identical to Romney's — both have refused to sign a no-new-tax pledge. She also argued that Romney's environmental plan calls for taxes on SUV's and fees on developers who build in areas short of open space.
"The only person who is actually talking about taxes right now is Mitt Romney," O'Brien said.
Russert pressed both candidates for detailed numbers on how they would close a projected budget gap of between $1 billion and $2 billion next year. They both ticked off a quick list of savings but avoided talking about cuts in state services. O'Brien several times accused Romney of using phony numbers in his budget plan.
"The numbers Mitt Romney just put on the table here are completely pulled out of the air," O'Brien said.
Retorted the GOP candidate: "My numbers are real," he said. "It would be really great if I got to speak about what I believe, and you got to say what you believe."
The two also sparred over an issue that has not been on the front burner in the race: abortion. The two seemed to agree generally on the issue, though O'Brien advocated lowering the age at which a woman could receive an abortion without parental consent. Romney would keep the age at 18.
But the sharpest exchanges came when O'Brien tried to paint Romney as "waffling" on the abortion issue. She pointed to his endorsement from the antiabortion Massachusetts Citizens for Life group in his 1994 US Senate campaign, and a letter he wrote in 2000 to a Utah newspaper in which he rejected to being labeled "pro-choice."
"My position has been the same throughout my political career," Romney said. He said he would strongly defend Massachusetts' abortion rights laws and then said O'Brien had opposed abortion early in ther legislative career.
As O'Brien pressed him, cutting him off several times when he was answering, Romney told her that her interruptions and accusations were "unbecoming" and called her to raise the level of the debate "one notch."
The exchanges turned more personal and tense when O'Brien challenged Romney on his business record, most particularly his having made a $473,000 profit in the Damon Corp., a medical testing firm that was later found to have committed massive Medicare fraud and fined a record $119 million. Romney, a Damon board member in early 1990's, has insisted he "blew the whistle" and pushed the board to make corrective changes. O'Brien pointed to court records that indicated that the fraud continued until Romney and the board sold the company.
"At Damon Laboratories, Mitt Romney did benefit from corporate greed," O'Brien said.
Romney turned it back on her, accusing O'Brien of failing to feret out the illegal billing practices as Community Care Systems Inc. where she worked for two years. O'Brien said she was not in a position in to know about the fraud. "Mitt Romney was an admiral, I was a sailor," she said.
On the death penalty, Romney took a hard stand in favor of capital punishment, describing it as a deterrent to violent crimes. "People who are intent on destroying human life and destroying everything that is valuable to us as a society have to recognize that they can pay the highest price," he said. He said he does not feel it should be used for retribution or revenge and opposes the execution of anyone under age 18.
O'Brien, who opposes capital punishment, said she was more committed to stopping crime because she supports immediate creation of a database of ballistic "fingerprinting" of firearms, which police say will help them track guns. Romney said he wants to hold off until science proves that the tracking can solve crimes.
Asked by Russert if he feels legislative leaders such as House Speaker Thomas M. Finneran have been in office too long, Romney said "Absolutely." He said it is important to provide a check against the Democrat-dominated Legislature.
He also said, while he would work with Finneran and other Democrats, he would use the bully pulpit of the governor's office to rally public opinion for his agenda and to fight legislative initiatives he opposed.
"I will ride up and down the state screaming, the taxes are coming, the taxes are coming," Romney said.
O'Brien, whose campaign is supported by Finneran, said she has disagreed with him on a host of issues, from abortion rights to the Clean Elections campaign finance law. She said as a Democrat she would be in a good position to work with dissident House members to pass legislation over Finneran's objections.
"Unlike Mitt Romney I know how to get 81 votes in the House and 21 votes in Senate," she said.
The only pleasant exchanges between the two came when Russert asked each of them to mention something they like about the other, and what they least like about the other. O'Brien praised Romney as a "terrific family man" who "did a good job at the Olympics." She said what she likes least was that he has the "wrong set of values."
Romney said he respected O'Brien for having won five elections, as a legislator and as a state treasurer. "That is not easy."
"The thing I like the least abut you is that you would say I don't have the right values," Romney told O'Brien.