LEVELLAND, Texas -
It's crunch time for the District 19 congressional candidates. Glen Robertson and Jodey Arrington are the two left standing, narrowed from an original field of nine.
Robertson won the most votes in the March 1st primary, with Arrington less than 1 percent behind. The two debated in Levelland Tuesday night in a forum hosted by FOX34 and South Plains College.
The candidates did agree on many issues, but differed over how the government should balance privacy and national security.
"I'm going to err on the side of making sure that we have the information that we need," Arrington said. "We should look at the balance between privacy and security. We should regularly have that debate, it's a healthy debate. But when we're at war, we have to make sure that we're equipped, that our soldiers are equipped, that our law enforcement officials are equipped, that our homeland security officials are equipped to keep the American people safe."
Robertson, however, favored personal liberty.
"We are protected, our personal God-given liberties are protected under the Constitution and amendments. That doesn't mean that the people we're at war with have those same rights. I'm talking about U.S. citizens, and U.S. citizens alone," Robertson said. "In peace or war, we have those God-given rights that are protected by that Constitution, and I could never vote for some of the things that are going on right now, the invasion of law-abiding US citizens personal rights."
The candidates were given the opportunity to ask each other questions, and things got more personal.
Robertson asked Arrington for his views on the 17th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution.
"I can say I'm not a constitutional scholar, Glen. If this is going to be a situation where you want to test my Constitutional expertise, I will say I'm not a Constitutional expert. If this is going to be how can I stump Jodey and make Jodey look like he's not smart, that's OK, you can do that, but I'm going to keep coming back to your record," Arrington said.
"It really wasn't attempting to hurt your feelings and get you very defensive. I apologize that you took it that way," Robertson said. "You have expounded on the 10th Amendment throughout the entire campaign. The 17th Amendment ties right into it because it's where we took the states' rights to appoint senators and gave it back to the public. I'm sorry you took it as a personal attack, but since you and me have held this discussion before, I assumed you would remember."
Arrington said Robertson has blamed high debt and tax increases on his council and asked how he would get other Congressmen to vote with him, when he "can't get three other people to vote with you on the city council."
Robertson said he had issue with the premise of the question.
"You said that I've blamed my council members on high debt and raising taxes and that's not true," Robertson said. "We've worked hard together. Lubbock's economy is at an all-time high, our economic index has never been this strong. We had over 900 home starts last year. We have the 17th lowest property tax rate out of the top 38 cities in the state. We've done that together, and we've done it through tough decisions at the public level. The attacks that are being made now by you and your super PAC are false and inaccurate.
Arrington shot back, saying, "When you campaigned as mayor, you campaigned on cutting the debt by 20 percent, reducing taxes and reducing spending. That doesn't make you a bad guy. It's just those were the pledges and the promises you made, and none of them came true."
Early voting in this race continues through Friday. Election Day is next Tuesday, May 24.
