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Politics

DeMaio, Peters Square Off In First 52nd Congressional Debate

Rep. Scott Peters watches former San Diego City Councilman Carl DeMaio speak during a debate in the NBC San Diego studio, Sept. 23, 2014.
NBC San Diego
Rep. Scott Peters watches former San Diego City Councilman Carl DeMaio speak during a debate in the NBC San Diego studio, Sept. 23, 2014.

DeMaio, Peters Square Off In First 52nd Congressional Debate
U.S. Rep. Scott Peters and former San Diego City Councilman Carl DeMaio debated a number of issues, including health care and use of ground troops against ISIS.

U.S. Rep. Scott Peters and former San Diego City Councilman Carl DeMaio squared off on a number of issues, including health care and use of ground troops against ISIS, in the first 52nd Congressional debate Tuesday. But they also stuck to familiar ground.

Peters attacked DeMaio for being divisive and a Tea Party extremist, while DeMaio attacked Peters over San Diego's pension crisis and the government perks he said Peters takes.

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The fighting began when DeMaio said Peters was not willing to stand up to his own party and vote for a border security bill. Peters said he supported the immigration reform bill passed by the Senate, and that the border bill passed by the House of Representatives only addressed border security, not immigration reform.

"Color me surprised, Scott Peters," DeMaio said. "You had an opportunity when the bill came before the House, a very targeted bill on border security, funding for border security and much of that money would have ended up here in San Diego and helped with some of our challenges, and you voted no.

"Scott, when you had a chance to actually be part of a solution, to actually be part of a modest step forward, to provide the resources necessary to secure our border, you voted no. You bent to your own party's pressure."

In response, Peters said he was rated last year as the fourth most independent Democrat "because I'm willing to take votes against my party."

"I rank my country first, my district second and my party third," Peters said. He added that his independence from his party was also the reason he was endorsed by the U.S. Chamber of Commerce.

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"What they don't want is Tea Party extremists, the kind of people who shut down the government and threaten their nation's credit rating," Peters said. "They see Mr. DeMaio as part of that camp."

"Scott, let's just stop right here," DeMaio countered. "You want to continue to apply labels to me because you can't defend your own record. So you can call me names all you want. I haven't sat there and called you names. There are issues I disagree with you on, but to sit there and say, 'I'm just going to call my opponent a Tea Party right-wing nut-job extremist,' Scott, it's dishonest, it's divisive, and it's what's wrong with politics today."

DeMaio attacked Peters for furthering San Diego's pension crisis.

"In four years' time, I cleaned up the mess that you created in eight years," DeMaio said, referring to both men's terms on the San Diego City Council. "We did that by bringing people together, bipartisan vote after bipartisan vote on the City Council."

Peters said San Diego had "a couple decades of bad financial practices" before he was elected to City Council, and that the council worked for many years on reforms before DeMaio was elected.

In answering a question on whether each candidate would support using U.S. ground troops against ISIS, DeMaio said he'd make a decision based on two key tests. The first would be whether the situation was a national security crisis.

"With ISIS, that has clearly been established," DeMaio said. But the second test, whether there was a "thoughtful common sense strategy to win" had not been passed, he said.

"In this case, I don't believe the president has laid out an effective military strategy," he said.

Peters said he supports the plan Congress, the president and military commanders have agreed upon, which includes air strikes, "developing a political system in Iraq that everyone can rely on" and working with allies in the area.

On Obamacare, when asked whether each man would repeal it, replace it or fix it, Peters said he's "a fix-it guy." He said there are many improvements still to be made, and that he's voted against his party to let people keep their health plans if they like them and to give individuals the same extension of compliance time that businesses received.

DeMaio said he thinks Obamacare is the wrong direction and adds to the problems of health care, but that neither party has offered a solution. But, he said he would keep some elements of Obamacare, including elimination of the preexisting condition penalty, allowing college students to stay on their parents' plans and keeping health care exchanges, but not have them managed by government.

"I would allow the market to handle that, because health care exchanges allow us to diversify the risk pool, allow us to get bulk purchasing power," DeMaio said. "I would go even further. I would allow people to redeem their employer health plan on the exchange to get a better plan or a plan that allows them to keep their doctor."

DeMaio said he would also allow competition across state lines and would reverse cuts to Medicare.

The second of the three 52nd Congressional debates is on Thursday, Oct. 9. It will be hosted by KPBS media partner 10News and the San Diego Regional Chamber of Commerce.

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