RINDGE — Terse exchanges and pointed accusations ranging from overseas jobs to negative attack ads were traded by the Republican candidates for U.S. Senate on Tuesday night in the final round of the Monadnock Debates.

The candidates, set to face off in a primary Sept. 14, met in a packed Pierce Hall on the campus of Franklin Pierce University to make an appeal to voters on which conservative would be the right to choice to fix what they have characterized as the nation’s broken government and economy.

Candidates Kelly Ayotte, Jim Bender, Bill Binnie, Dennis Lamare and Ovide Lamontagne attempted to differentiate themselves at the final round of the Monadnock Debates to determine who will face Democrat Rep. Paul Hodes in November to claim the New Hampshire Senate seat being vacated by Republican Sen. Judd Gregg. The three-part series of congressional and senate debates was co-sponsored by the Fitzwater Center at Franklin Pierce University and the Monadnock Ledger-Transcript.

The final debate drew wide interest and required some voters to watch the exchanges via live webcast in a reserved overflow space.

On the economy

The most spirited exchange occurred between Ayotte and Binnie when Ayotte pressed the wealthy businessman on whether he had shipped jobs overseas in search of cheap labor. She also accused him of being a liberal.

“I welcome the opportunity to clear the record,” said Binnie. “I’m no liberal, and I didn’t ship jobs overseas.”

He also said he saw nothing wrong with expanding manufacturing facilities into areas such as Latin America in order to grow his business.

The two candidates have been locked in a battle of negative campaigning, even after Party Chairman John H. Sununu called for civility.

“Shame on you,” Binnie said, accusing Ayotte of trying to distort his business experience.

“After you spent $1 million to run five negative ads against me, shame on you,” Ayotte fired back.

Binnie countered the attack by going after Ayotte’s campaign, but the other candidates interrupted the exchange.

“Okay, that’s enough,” said Lamontagne.

“Are we having fun yet?” added Lamare.

The candidates did not have any kind words for President Barack Obama’s stimulus package.

Lamontagne said he wants to repeal the remainder of the stimulus package, something he believes is “pork-barrel spending.”

“Stimulus money is not targeted for the solutions that we needed in this country,” said Lamontagne. “Jobs are not created in Washington, they are created in our private sector.”

“We need to repeal the stimulus and apply the remainder of the funds to the deficit,” said Ayotte.

“Today’s government deficits are tomorrow’s new taxes,” said Binnie, explaining he was also in favor of repealing the stimulus and applying it to the deficit.

“I would repeal every bit of what is left in the stimulus project,” agreed Bender. “It is a complete waste of taxpayer money.”

Bender said that the federal government was not good at creating jobs and that an environment needed to be created where the private sector felt robust enough to stimulate the economy on its own.

“The money has not created jobs, we have actually lost jobs,” said Lamare, who said the money hasn’t gone toward jobs in the private sector.

“The jobs that are supposed to be grown here because of the stimulus are in India, Germany and China. The money is going somewhere else,” he added.

Foreign policy

All of the candidates said they saw the large amount of money being borrowed from China as an issue that needed to be addressed. They all agreed it was necessary to make the U.S. more competitive and convince China to be fairer in its trade practices.

“Right now, China has 10 percent growth and we have 10 percent unemployment,” said Binnie.

Ayotte said if elected, she would focus on cutting spending in Washington to get the nation’s “fiscal house in order” to lessen America’s reliance on China.

While most of the candidates agreed that the decision to go to war with Iraq was necessary, Lamontagne disagreed.

“I think going to Iraq was a mistake,” said Lamontagne, who said that the war was based on false information about weapons of mass destruction. “Having gone to Iraq, however, we have an American duty that is unique in world history. We do not leave a country in chaos.”

Lamare said he was glad to see the country pulling out of Iraq, but also wants to see the U.S. pull out of Afghanistan, too.

“They are a tribal nation, they do not have any loyalty to the national government,” said Lamare. “We should get out of there within the next couple years.”

He also emphasized the importance of not abandoning American prisoners of war.

“We should never forget them,” said Lamare.

The other three candidates said they believed that, in time, America’s occupation in the Middle East would pay off.

“We are going to look back on Iraq as an excellent mission,” said Bender.

Environmental matters

The candidates did not agree with any variation of a cap-and-trade bill, saying they saw it as a hindrance to the nation’s economy.

“Cap-and-trade would not only inhibit economic growth, it is a jobs killer, and we just don’t need this,” said Bender.

“I do not support cap-and-trade, it is going to be a massive energy tax on all of us,” said Ayotte.

“We need to let the innovation of our people and their creativity answer our problems,” said Binnie.

Bender and Lamare both expressed their opposition to the very idea of climate change.

“I believe in climate change. Spring, summer, winter, fall,” joked Lamare.

“We have flawed science that is incomplete. There is no scientific evidence that man is causing global warming,” said Bender.

Binnie and Lamontagne both said they were in favor of focusing on exploring America’s own natural resources through drilling.

When asked whether the recent BP oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico has made him rethink his position on drilling in Alaska, Lamontagne said that it had not. He saw the BP spill as a regulatory failure and sees the drilling in Alaska as less of an environmental risk.

Government

The candidates all agreed that Congress was failing the country and does not work toward the people’s interests. They all called for reform throughout many systems in government.

Lamontagne was asked about lobbyists and their role in Congress.

“The lobbyists are important in order to provide a voice to special interests and providing information,” he said. “That isn’t what happens, and you and I know that isn’t what happens.”

He said he did not want to live in Washington and wants to implement structural changes in Congress, such as removing unfunded pensions for congressmen and senators.

Binnie said he wanted to put more people with different skill sets in Congress, not just lawyers. He said the focus should be on representation of voters and said he agreed to strict term limits, which he would follow.

“That is what is wrong with Washington, people who go down and think they can advance their own futures, instead of voters’ futures,” he said.

“Their goal is to get re-elected instead of getting things done,” said Ayotte. She said that the attitude in Washington was that representatives like Democratic Congressman Paul Hodes think they are better than the citizens they represent.

“I do not know better than you, I want the privilege to represent you,” she said.

Lamare said that Congress isn’t listening to the people, citing the healthcare bill as an example.

“They didn’t care what we thought. They are our representatives, they are supposed to be down there for us,” he said.

“The government has proven to be incompetent and dysfunctional,” said Bender. “When every vote comes down to all Republicans on one side and all Democrats on the other side, that cannot possibly be good governance.”

While the candidates criticized the current government’s failures, they also went after each other’s past decisions.

Lamontagne went after Ayotte for saying she would have voted to confirm Sonia Sotomayor to the Supreme Court.

Ayotte defended her position, explaining that, while she does not agree with Sotomayor, there cannot be a double standard when it comes to confirming Supreme Court justices. She said she would work to get a conservative confirmed as well, after looking at each judge’s merits.

Lamontagne also went on the offensive with Binnie, criticizing him for supporting President Obama’s decision to sue Arizona over the state’s recent actions against illegal immigration.

“That is a clear mischaracterization of what I think about Arizona,” said Binnie. “The fundamental issue is in Washington, Washington is responsible for immigration.”

Lamare also went after Binnie for supporting the Employee Free Choice Act.

“I did not say I was in favor of that act,” said Binnie. “You misunderstood Dennis, that is not how I feel at all.”

Audience reaction

Joe Cartwright of Alstead said he thought the candidates were strong on economic issues, but found there wasn’t enough discussion on defense and military spending.

For some audience members, personality and attitude were key in their judgments of candidates.

Keene resident Davie Braden was undecided before the debate, but now has a better idea of which candidate she will vote for in the upcoming election. She was looking to vote for a conservative, but was looking to see how each stood out.

“More of it was personality and temperament than it was issues,” she said. “What I saw was arrogance and antagonism, what I saw was attitudes in a few of the candidates that turned me off.”

“I liked the candidates who were more positive and told us what they were going to do, instead of the infighting,” said Tim Madigan of Nashua. “I think negative politics is a naive approach to politics. They are basically not trusting us as voters to make a good decision.”

The moderator for the final debate was Jaffrey attorney and Rindge Town Moderator David Tower. The panelists at this week’s debate were FPU Professor Robin Marra and Monadnock Ledger-Transcript Editor Steve Leone.

Marra was critical of some of the negative conduct between candidates.

“Ayotte and Binnie are just sniping each other,” he said. “In terms of advancing the discourse, I don’t think that type of exchange is productive.”

Marra was glad to see Lamare get a chance to participate in the debate, since he has not been allowed into previous debates because he was not seen as a major candidate

The political science professor did feel one candidate came out strong during the debate.

“I thought Lamontagne stayed the most focused in terms of actually responding to the questions presented,” he said.

Now that the Monadnock Debates are complete, Marra is looking forward to continuing this sort of political dialogue in the future.

“I hope that whoever wins the primary in two weeks will agree to come back for another series of debates. It’s good for the region because we are often overlooked.”