Candidates for Ga. governor spar in Capitol debate

ATLANTA - Republican Nathan Deal defended his votes against legislation to toughen Georgia's domestic violence laws. And Democrat Roy Barnes fought back against accusations that his legal fight against the state's voter ID law wasted taxpayer money.

Deal, Barnes and Libertarian John Monds faced off in a WXIA-sponsored debate Tuesday at the state Capitol - just outside the governor's office each man hopes to claim.

Barnes quizzed Deal about votes he took while in the state Senate in the 1980s against domestic violence legislation.

Deal said as a one-time juvenile court judge he had seen what domestic violence can do to families.

"But I also have concerns about warrants, arrests in homes without warrants," Deal said, adding that in the U.S. House he has supported increased funding to combat violence against women.

Barnes fired back that the issue highlighted "a basic philosophical difference" between him and his opponent.

"I don't believe it is invading the sanctity of home ... to make sure that a woman is not grabbed by the hair and hit and a police office walks in and says I can't do anything about it," Barnes said.

Deal said Barnes-backed legal challenges to the state's law requiring voters to show ID to cast an in-person ballot have cost the state more than $1 million.

"Don't you think it would have been better to spend that million dollars challenging the constitutionality of the federal health care legislation that is going to have such a detrimental impact on our state?" Deal asked.

Barnes said the voter ID law did not address the documented problems of voter fraud, which lay in absentee voting. Yet that was not addressed by the GOP-sponsored law, he said.

"It was a purely political move by the Republicans in the Legislature to expand the absentee voting and restrict those that went eye-to-eye," Barnes argued

Monds asked Deal about multiple votes in Congress to raise the limit on the debt ceiling.

Deal explained that his votes to raise the limit were to provide enough money to support combat troops or to make sure Social Security checks are going out the door on time.

"I make no apologies for that," Deal said.

Tuesday's forum remained largely polite. Billed as "Stop the Madness: Let's Get to the Issues," the candidates avoided most of the blistering attacks that have characterized some earlier forums.

Monds said he would support legalizing marijuana and gay marriage. Deal and Barnes each said they would oppose both.

And all three men said they believed President Barack Obama was born on U.S. soil. Deal had previously written a letter to the White House calling on Obama to erase doubts and produce his birth certificate.

There were some fireworks on negative attack ads that have been tearing up the television airwaves.

Barnes assailed the Republican Governors Association for spending millions of dollars on ads that he called "distortions."

And he defended his own spots targeting Deal's financial dealings and ethics.

"Those are not negative," Barnes said. "They are touchstone issues of integrity."

Deal said Barnes has engaged in "character assassinations" since the Aug. 10 runoff.

"There comes a time when people pick on you enough that you're going to respond. We have responded," Deal said.

Monds said he has stayed out of the fray.

"What I've done is concentrate on the issues I would try to do as governor of Georgia and that's why I think my message has been resonating," he said.

On one thing, all three candidates agreed. Asked to name their favorite Georgia sports figure - past or present - each named Hank Aaron.