Virginia Senate Candidates Face Off

Republican Sen. George Allen and Democratic challenger Jim Webb sparred over familiar issues including the Iraq war and taxes Monday night in the final televised debate of Virginia’s tight U.S. Senate race.

The election could help determine which party controls the Senate.

The debate also touched on allegations that Allen used racial slurs in the past and on a 1979 magazine article in which Webb, a former Navy secretary under President Reagan, argued that women are not fit to command men in battle.

The most heated exchange came when the candidates were allowed to ask each other questions. It centered on taxes.

Allen said he has supported tax cuts that Webb has criticized. Webb said tax cuts during a time of increased federal spending and a growing deficit are unwise.

“You can’t keep spending like this without increasing revenues,” Webb said.

Allen asked Webb if he knew “how many Virginians have benefited from the tax relief you criticize.”

Both candidates began talking at once, making it difficult to understand either, until Allen ended the exchange by saying: “The answer is 3 million Virginians.”

On foreign policy, Webb, a decorated Vietnam combat veteran, called for a “diplomatic solution” to the war in Iraq. Allen stuck by his support of President Bush’s strategy.

Allen dismissed as “baseless” claims by some of his former University of Virginia football teammates that in the 1970s he freely used an epithet to describe black people. He urged people to look at his record on race, including his efforts to help historically black colleges and universities.

Webb said Allen’s use of the word “macaca,” an obscure racial slur, to single out a Webb campaign volunteer of Indian descent amounted to “unnecessary bullying.”

Asked about his 1979 Washingtonian magazine article, “Women Can’t Fight,” Webb said he is now comfortable with the role of women in the military.

Allen touted his record of appointing women to Cabinet positions when he was Virginia’s governor from 1993 to 1997 and his efforts to get more women interested in science and engineering.