Candidates for the 5th Congressional District met Monday night at the WPSU studios in their only televised debate before next Tuesday’s election. The two candidates agreed on very little in the wide range of topics they covered during the hour-long debate.
Republican incumbent Representative Glenn Thompson and Democratic challenger and Brookville lawyer Kerith Strano Taylor had a sometimes-heated back-and-forth, disagreeing about the Affordable Care Act, immigration reform, an increase in the minimum wage, and EPA water regulations, among other issues. On the current Ebola outbreak, Taylor rejected the idea of a travel ban, while Thompson said he would support blocking travelers from countries that have had cases of Ebola.
“How many countries have to go into an epidemic with a disease that has a 70% fatality rate before this administration recognizes that we need to take better preparation, better response to essentially prevent what will become a pandemic,” said Thompson.
Both candidates said they agreed Congress was broken. Representative Thompson placed the blame squarely on Harry Reid and the Senate. Taylor spread the blame more broadly.
“Leadership has one job, one job," said Taylor. "Their job is to more their parties to compromise. And we have demonstrated by the four people who are sitting in those spots that they haven’t been able to do it together. So there comes a point at which if we want our government to work, we have to say ‘Enough’ and start putting new people in.”
The candidates will meet in two more debates in Clarion and Warren before next Tuesday’s election.
