KINDER, ALTHAUS HOLD HEATED DEBATE

Republican state Sen. Peter Kinder and Democratic challenger Rick Althaus sharply criticized each other in a debate Thursday night.

Kinder portrayed Althaus as a tax-and-spend liberal; Althaus depicted Kinder as a do-nothing legislator who hates government and bashes public education.

Both Cape Girardeau men took exception to how they were characterized by the other.

About 250 people attended the debate in the University Center Ballroom. It was sponsored by Southeast Missouri State University's Student Government and the local League of Women Voters.

The Cape Girardeau debate was the sixth and final debate between the two candidates in the six-county 27th District. It was taped for later broadcast on cable access channel 5.

Kinder is seeking re-election to a second, four-year term.

A political science professor at Southeast, Althaus maintained he is a main-stream, fiscally conservative Democrat.

"My opponent smirked about liberal college professors, but hasn't been able to prove I am one," Althaus said.

Althaus said only one of Kinder's bills was passed by lawmakers during the past four years.

But Kinder said some of his efforts succeeded in the form of similar bills offered by other lawmakers and attached as amendments to other legislation.

Kinder said the legislature isn't a "bill factory" and most taxpayers want laws repealed instead of new ones enacted.

Althaus said Kinder ran up large travel expenses for out-of-state trips that cost the taxpayers.

Kinder defended his expenses: The state pays mileage for legislators, he said.

He said some of the cost is associated with meetings he has attended as chairman of an education task force for a national legislative group.

Kinder said tax relief is the most pressing issue today. It is both a pocketbook and a moral issue, he said.

Kinder said the average American family works nearly 185 days a year to pay for local, state and federal regulations and taxes.

Kinder said he wants to reduce the size of government and get it off the backs of working people.

He said state government has grown along with the federal bureaucracy. In 1984, state government in Missouri operated on a $4 billion budget. Today, the state budget is $14 billion.

Althaus said government isn't evil. The job of legislators is to make government work for the citizens, he said.

Electing a government opponent like Kinder to serve in the state Senate makes about as much sense as taking your Toyota to a mechanic who hates foreign cars, Althaus said.

Althaus said Kinder has "bashed public education" while he supports it.

Kinder said Althaus opposes school choice. Kinder favors school choice.

Althaus said Kinder's school-choice voucher system would take $700 million out of public schools.

He said Kinder benefited from a public-school education and wants to pull up the ladder and deny such education to others.

"I don't need any lectures from you," Kinder replied. He said he wants to improve education, not settle for the status quo.

He said parents should have control over the education of their children instead of unelected, state bureaucrats. Kinder said state bureaucrats have hijacked local schools.

Kinder said the Democratic Party is the party of big government and the unions that represent government workers. Forty-two percent of AFL-CIO members are in government employee and teachers' unions, he said.

Both men said they support gun-owners' rights and oppose the minimum-wage hike on the November ballot.