BY HOWARD WILKINSON
The Cincinnati Enquirer
CHEVIOT -- Republican incumbent Steve Chabot and Democratic challenger Roxanne Qualls had their first face-to-face meeting in their 1st Congressional District campaign Sunday night, butting heads over taxes, Social Security and abortion.
The debate in the Cheviot Field House also had a spirited disagreement over whether the problems surrounding President Clinton are about sex or lies.
Ms. Qualls, the third-term Cincinnati mayor who is trying to unseat the two-term GOP congressman, said the first of four scheduled debates would show there "are significant differences between the two of us."
The next two hours proved her right, as the two sparred over a host of issues, some raised by a panel of reporters and others by members of the crowd of about 500 that packed into the sweltering, un-air-conditioned field house.
It was a crowd split between Qualls and Chabot supporters, who alternately hooted and hollered at the opposing candidate. At one point, after Qualls backers chanted "Reagan, Reagan" while Mr. Chabot was blaming Democrats for creating the national debt, Ms. Qualls asked her supporters not to interrupt.
Much of the discussion centered on Mr. Chabot's vote Saturday for an $80 billion tax cut package that is to come out of the projected federal budget surplus. House Republicans -- joined by 19 Democrats -- sent to the Senate a plan to set aside 90 percent of the surplus until a plan to save Social Security is devised. They would use the other 10 percent for tax cuts, including eliminating the "marriage penalty" and reducing inheritance taxes.
Ms. Qualls said Mr. Chabot and the Republicans were "playing election year politics with the budget surplus."
Since most of the budget surplus is supposed to come from anticipated excess payroll taxes into the Social Security trust fund, using part of the money for tax cuts "just creates a double debt for the future," said Ms. Qualls. Her campaign is running ads saying all the surplus should be held until Congress comes up with a plan to save Social Security.
"My mother is widowed and depends on Social Security," Ms. Qualls said, echoing a theme of her TV ad. "Social Security is our promise to our parents. This country is on the verge of breaking that promise."
Mr. Chabot insisted that the House GOP plan allows Congress to protect most of the surplus for Social Security while "giving people the tax relief they need."
"Social Security is a sacred trust," Mr. Chabot said. The Republicans in the House, Mr. Chabot said, are able to preserve Social Security and give tax relief "because we have been fiscally prudent."
The Nov. 3 election in the 1st District, which includes most of Cincinnati and many of its western suburbs, offers voters "a very clear choice on taxes," said Mr. Chabot, who first won election in 1994, when the Republicans regained control of Congress.
"I believe working families are overtaxed; my opponent does not," Mr. Chabot said. "We need to reduce taxes across the board." Ms. Qualls has advocated "targeted tax cuts" similar to those Mr. Clinton advocated in his re-election campaign. The tax cuts would go for child care and college education.
Mr. Chabot called the kind of tax cuts Ms. Qualls favors "social engineering."
"Targeted tax cuts mean the government wants to tell you how to spend the money," Mr. Chabot said. "I want the kind of across-the-board tax cuts that will let people here decide how they spend their money." Mr. Chabot touted his reputation as a congressman who eschews federal spending for what he calls "pork barrel spending." He said he thinks 1st District voters would rather see federal spending cut than "see dollars pouring into projects that don't matter." But Ms. Qualls lashed out at Mr. Chabot for his lack of support last year for federal funding of a study of a light rail system for Cincinnati, a project Ms. Qualls thinks could bring economic development and new jobs to the area.
She said local officials have had to rely on other area members of Congress, like Rep. Jim Bunning, R-Southgate, and U.S. Sen. Mike DeWine, R-Ohio, for help in getting federal transportation dollars to the Cincinnati area.
"This area sent $83 million in gasoline taxes to Washington last year and Congressman Chabot votes consistently to send that money to other congressional districts around the country, calling it principle when it is just plain foolishness."
Mr. Chabot defended his opposition to funding of the light rail study, calling it a "boondoggle."
"It would end up costing taxpayers here an unbelievable amount of money," Mr. Chabot said. "Does anyone on the west side believe this east side light rail would benefit them?"
Mr. Chabot claimed that "we could buy everybody in the district a car for what this light rail boondoggle would end up costing taxpayers." The two candidates were at loggerheads over the volatile issue of abortion. Ms. Qualls has been a consistent supporter of abortion rights, while Mr. Chabot has supported a constitutional amendment banning abortion.
During the campaign, Mr. Chabot has accused Ms. Qualls of supporting late-term "partial birth" abortions, but Sunday night, Ms. Qualls said the charge is not true.
"I would vote for a ban if there was a protection for the life of the mother," Ms. Qualls said.
The two also wrangled over the question of whether Mr. Clinton should be impeached.
It is an issue that hits close to home for both candidates. Mr. Chabot is a member of the House Judiciary Committee, which is considering impeachment hearings. Mr. Clinton helped talk Ms. Qualls into making the race and she has been a steadfast supporter of the president. Sunday night, as Chabot supporters in the audience hooted in derision, Ms. Qualls said that while she considers the president's conduct with former intern Monica Lewinsky "wrong and improper," the matter "is not simply about Bill Clinton and his conduct. We all lose if this process is perverted by election-year politics." Ms. Qualls noted that in 1974, when the House Judiciary Committee voted articles of impeachment against President Nixon, all the committee's records were kept private. This time, the Republican-controlled Judiciary Committee has released nearly all the material gathered by Independent Counsel Kenneth Starr. Mr. Chabot has voted with the Republican majority on the release of documents.
"My concern is that this process be done as quickly as possible and as fairly as possible," Ms. Qualls said. "We shouldn't have a Congress and a president preoccupied with sex."
Mr. Chabot said the issue in the Clinton case "is not sex; it is perjury, abuse of office, witness tampering and obstruction of justice."
Mr. Chabot, who called the president's conduct with Ms. Lewinsky "reprehensible," said criticism of the committee for releasing document was unfounded.
"We all want this process to be over quickly, and we all ought to put partisan politics aside and do what is best for the country," Mr. Chabot said.
Ms. Qualls supports the Patient Bill of Rights proposed by congressional Democrats and the Clinton administration, while Mr. Chabot voted for a House GOP version that Democrats say does not go far enough in regulating HMOs.
"Mr. Chabot voted for a fig leaf," Ms. Qualls said.
Mr. Chabot said that while "the last thing we need is nationalized, socialized health care," Congress should do more to make health care affordable to American families.
The congressional candidates will go head to head for a second debate at 7:30 p.m. Oct. 13 at the Delhi Township Senior Center.
