Compass or GPS? Colorado Senate candidates debate path forward

Sen. Mark Udall (D-Colo.) and Rep. Cory Gardner (R-Colo.) sharpened their criticism of each other’s record in their second of three debates this week.

“You all had some fun at my expense,” the Democratic incumbent said to moderators about his comment from a recent debate that the “last person” President Obama wants to see coming down the front lawn is him.

“What I was saying was, I have a Colorado compass and that’s how I serve the state of Colorado. When I agree with the president of the United States I stand with the president of the United States,” Udall explained, referencing his support of former President George W. Bush targeting Osama bin Laden in Afghanistan.

“You just said that you have a Colorado compass, but maybe you ought to consider getting GPS because your Colorado compass is leading this state down the wrong path,” Gardner quipped moments later.

Both candidates tip-toed around definitive responses regarding climate change and the Keystone XL oil pipeline.

Gardner said Udall was absent from key hearings on the Islamic State in Iraq and Syria (ISIS) and hypocritical about equal pay, after admitting to voting for $800 million in cuts to Medicare Advantage.

“What I had done was redirect the monies out of Medicare Advantage … to extend the solvency and life of Medicare,” Udall said about his initial comment from Monday’s debate.

Gardner also charged that Udall, a member of the Senate Armed Services Committee, missed 64 percent of the panel’s public hearings, the basis for an ad his campaign released Tuesday.

“Where were you and what was more important than our national security?” he asked Udall, noting the growing threat of ISIS.

“I’ve made all the votes on the Armed Services Committee,” Udall said, adding regarding ISIS that the U.S. is “gonna wipe them out.”

“You want to parse words, I want to protect America,” he added.

Gardner questioned Udall’s record on equal pay, saying women in his office receive 86 cents to every dollar men receive. “Why don’t you live by example in your office?” Gardner asked.

“I pay the women on my team for equal work,” Udall responded, adding that Gardner’s positions are “not pro-women.”

On birth control, Gardner said, “It’s simply outrageous somebody would try to ban birth control,” adding when his wife saw ads suggesting that was his position she wondered, “Didn’t you used to pick up my prescription?”

Pressed several times about his stance on controversial past state personhood initiatives he supported that defined life as beginning at fertilization, Gardner said a similar federal bill he still supports “is simply a statement that I support life.”

Udall called out Gardner for sending “mixed messages” given his support for over-the-counter birth control and said he was “out of the mainstream.”

“I am running on my record, Congressman Gardner is running away from his record,” Udall declared.

Udall’s record is that of Obama’s, Gardner said, noting the president’s recent comment that his policies would be on the ballot this fall and adding that Udall was “tied hook, line and sinker” to Obama’s record.

The trifecta of debates between the men locked in a tight Senate race concludes Thursday with a debate in Pueblo.