LOUISVILLE -- Making their first joint appearance at a campaign forum, U.S. Senate candidates Jim Bunning and Scotty Baesler chewed on one another Tuesday over tobacco, trade and differences in federal government policy.
The two U.S. House members took questions during the 90-minute forum from board members of the Kentucky Farm Bureau, which bills itself as an independent, non-partisan agricultural organization of nearly 400,000 members statewide.
With about 60,000 family farms in Kentucky growing tobacco, much of the debate focused on the federal tobacco price-support program and the ill-fated tobacco legislation that recently died in the Senate.
Mr. Bunning, a Southgate Republican, and Mr. Baesler, a Democrat from Lexington, each said the federal tobacco program must be maintained to guarantee Kentucky growers a fair price for the state's No. 1 cash crop.
"We both support the tobacco program and both will do what we can to preserve the tobacco program," Mr. Bunning said during the forum, which was broadcast via satellite to Farm Bureau members at 32 sites around the state.
The candidates clashed repeatedly and heatedly over who and whose political party was best positioned to represent Kentucky's interest in the continuing debate over tobacco.
Mr. Bunning called President Clinton "public enemy No. 1" on tobacco and said Mr. Baesler's "president and Democratic colleagues in the Senate have been trying to kill . . . the tobacco industry." "Recently two Democratic senators joined 40 Republicans in killing the McCain (tobacco) bill in the Senate," Mr. Bunning said.
Opponents of the bill, including Republican Sen. Mitch McConnell of Kentucky, have maintained that the McCain bill would have added more than $500 billion in new taxes on cigarettes.
"Scotty has to answer this question," Mr. Bunning said. "What Democratic votes will he be able to get in tobacco? In the Senate, Scotty Baesler will be the minority in the minority."
Mr. Baesler, a farmer raised and still living on a Fayette County tobacco farm, pointed out it was Mr. McConnell who proposed doing away with the tobacco program if the McCain bill had passed.
"It wasn't a Democrat in the House that led the charge to do away with the program," he said. "It was the Republicans."
"Maybe I will be the lone Democrat, but I've shown . . . I don't mind going against the party when necessary," Mr. Baesler said, pointing out that he has clashed with Mr. Clinton in the past over tobacco policy.
When it came to trade, Mr. Bunning defended his 1993 vote against the North American Free Trade Act, or NAFTA, which Mr. Baesler supported. During a Fourth of July celebration stump speech in Campbellsville in southern Kentucky, where NAFTA is blamed for the loss of hundreds of apparel jobs that have been moved to Mexico, Mr. Bunning bashed Mr. Baesler for his vote.
But Mr. Bunning was conciliatory during Tuesday's forum.
"I'm sorry, but I disagree with the Farm Bureau policy on NAFTA," he said, adding that he supported other trade legislation. "My opponent voted for NAFTA but now he apologizes for it."
There were also a few tough exchanges between the candidates. Mr. Baesler hit Mr. Bunning for opposing the Family Medical Leave Act, the 1995 Crime Bill, a minimum wage increase, and funding for Head start and vocational schools.
"I'm talking about ordinary people . . . in this campaign," Mr. Baesler said.
Mr. Bunning said he has consistently voted for a smaller federal government and has made huge strides to shore up Social Security. He also took a swing at Mr. Baesler for not supporting legislation to balance the federal budget.
"I voted to cut spending 1 percent so that we could cut taxes by $100 billion," Mr. Bunning said. "Scotty voted against it." The debate turned a little personal at times.
Mr. Baesler rehashed an episode that occurred during the Ohio River flood of spring 1997. During a Cincinnati radio talk show, Mr. Bunning made a joke based on incorrect information that downtown Louisville was flooding because workers in Mayor Jerry Abramson's administration could not locate the city's flood walls.
"Another place we differ is our demeanor," Mr. Baesler said. "You've got to have respect. You've got to be sensitive. You've got to care about people."
Mr. Bunning said Mr. Baesler has largely been ineffective while in Congress.
"Scotty Baesler has not passed a single bill since being elected to Congress" six years ago, Mr. Bunning said. "Scotty hasn't accomplished much."
The two are vying to replace Democrat Sen. Wendell Ford of Owensboro, who is retiring this year after 24 years in the U.S. Senate.
