Eighth district debate successful

Red, white and blue. \nThe blue T-shirts of Dr. Paul Perry's supporters, the white limestone of the Monroe County Courthouse and the red T-shirts of John Hostettler's (R-8) supporters ' or the red of the so-called "bloody" eighth Congressional district race ' canvassed the lawn of the town square Saturday.\nHostettler and Perry debated for the first time at the Great Limestone Debate II, firing piercing questions and answers back and forth. \nThe first Great Limestone Debate, a style first used in 1998 at the debate between Hostettler and Gail Riecken, was modeled after the Lincoln-Douglas style debates of Abraham Lincoln and Stephen Douglas, where the candidates asked questions to each other directly.\nWith almost twice the number of Hostettler supporters attending the event, the crowd vocalized their feelings with the two candidates loudly and constantly throughout the debate yelling, "Answer the question!" to Perry and "The Ho's gotta go!" to Hostettler.\nA group from the Green Party with pieces of tape over their mouths protested that other candidates were left out of the debate.\nQuestions from Hostettler ranged from who Perry would vote for in November, to whether he would vote to overturn Roe vs. Wade if elected. Both candidates are pro-life.\nPerry did not answer those questions, adding that the candidates were there to discuss issues that they have differing opinions on.\nWhen asked what his stance is on the Employment Nondiscrimination Act, Perry said he has reservations with that legislation because of the creation of "special classes."\nPerry's questions to Hostettler revolved around health care, including prescription drug care benefit and breast cancer research funding. He stressed that a Medicare prescription drug benefits would lower costs in the long run.\n"If people don't take their medicine," Perry said. "Guess what? They get sicker and sicker. Patients mean more hospitalization and higher costs in the end."\nPerry said with his experience as an orthopedic surgeon, insurance companies are trying to tell him what is best for his patients.\nHe spoke about the high cost of drugs and reforming the system. \n"Spending $30 billion dollars a year to advertisements for products you can't even go to the store and buy without a prescription from me makes absolutely no sense," Perry said. "Let's fix health care and let's fix it now."\nGrassroots United, a nonpartisan group that works to get citizens involved in politics and voting, organized the debate. Coordinator Jim Pfaff said he was pleased with the way the debate went.\n"I think it was awesome," Pfaff said. "There was a good exchange from the candidates and we found out who was who and got a real opportunity to look at the policy of the candidates and also the character of the candidates."\nJon Chaffin of Ellettsville said Hostettler represents the Congress under Newt Gingrich and that people do not want those representatives anymore.\n"Their time is over," Chaffin said. "It's time for most of them to move on. I think they're time is passed and we're all moving beyond that now."\nLeo Hickman, Monroe County coordinator for the Hostettler campaign, said he wants his children to have a strong country to grow up in.\n"I want someone who will set an example," he said. "The three most important things in raising children and raising a country are example, example, example, and John Hostettler is a great American example."\nPerry and Hostettler both said they thought the debate went well. Perry said he was able to talk about all the issues he wanted to discuss, and the debate gave the audience a good idea of where the two candidates stand on health care.\nHostettler said it was an opportunity to talk about some issues other than health care. \n"Health care is an important issue," he said, "but there are a lot of constituents across the eighth district who have other issues that they feel are equally important"