Rand Paul, Jack Conway Face Off in Kentucky Senate Debate

Candidates for Kentucky Senate, Democrat Jack Conway, left, and Republican Rand Paul prepare for a debate in Louisville, Ky, Oct. 3, 2010

A man not even on the ballot quickly became the focal point Sunday as two candidates vying to fill a U.S. Senate seat for Kentucky appeared in their first of five scheduled televised debates.

"I think this election is really about the President's agenda; do you support the President's agenda or do you not support it?" Republican Rand Paul told Fox News moderator Chris Wallace in the debate's first exchange.

"I think his agenda is wrong for America. I will stand up against President Obama's agenda," said Paul, 47, an eye doctor making his first run for public office. His father is two-time Republican presidential candidate Ron Paul, a libertarian U.S. Congressman from Texas. The younger Paul moved to Kentucky 17 years ago and established his practice in Bowling Green, near his wife's hometown.

Democrat Jack Conway, 41, from Louisville, the state's attorney general since January 2008, endorses the pillars of Obama's legislative program, the economic stimulus -- which he says saved 17,000 Kentucky jobs -- and health care reform. But Conway told the debate audience his support of Obama is conditional.

Is Rand Paul Still a Tea Partier?
VIDEO: Ky. Senate Candidates Face Off
CBSNews.com Special Report: Campaign 2010

"I am a proud Democrat. I'm certainly not going to be on the left of Barack Obama," Conway said. He breaks with the President, for example, by supporting an extension of President Bush's income tax cuts for all income brackets and in opposing the system of greenhouse gas reduction know as "cap and trade."

The President won only 41 percent of the Kentucky vote against John McCain, after badly losing the state's Democratic presidential primary to Hillary Clinton.

While Paul aligns with national Republicans in advocating a repeal of the new health care law, Conway says he wants to "fix it". For example, Conway says he'd seek a new provision for Medicare to engage in bulk purchasing of prescription drugs to lower drug prices for seniors.

Conway says the passed legislation will allow 654,000 Kentucky residents to get health insurance, including 19,000 young adults who will be able to stay on their parents' plans until they are 26-years-old, and offers 45,000 small business subsidies to pay employee premiums.

"Does Rand Paul want to repeal all of that? What would he replace it with?" Conway told CBS News last week.

Throughout his campaign, Paul has declined to be interviewed, as have his campaign officials and the chairman of the state Republican Party.

"If you have questions, you can email me," campaign press secretary Gary Howard said at the front door of Paul's campaign headquarters in Bowling Green last week.

Not that Paul has any difficulty articulating his core campaign message of aggressively shrinking federal government agencies and balancing the budget. He likes to point out, by his calculation, that President Obama's nearly $800 billion stimulus package amounted to $413,000 per job created.

At left, watch Nancy Cordes' report on the race on the CBS Evening News

"We really have come to take our government back," Paul told a rally in the northern Kentucky town of Erlanger on Saturday night. "Can government grow so large that we can never get back our freedom?"

True to his philosophy of slashing government spending, Paul told Fox moderator Chris Wallace that he would vote to raise the retirement age to collect Social Security in full, raised last year to 66.

"For the younger generation, there will have to be changes in eligibility," Paul said, to keep the program solvent.

Paul stunned the Republican Party when he upset the state's establishment candidate, Trey Grayson, in the May primary. His win was fueled by support from the conservative Tea Party movement that has hastened the demise of nearly a dozen mainstream Republican Senate and Gubernatorial candidates nationwide.

Greg Jent helped organize the first Tea Party rally in Bowling Green on tax day, April 15, 2009, when hundreds filled the old town square.

"Everybody kind of woke up and said, 'we're too far in debt, we've got too many things going on, our government has its hands in too many things,' and they weren't happy about it," said Jent, a businessman pursuing a masters degree in economics.

Rand Paul made one of his first public speeches that day.

"Calling for a balanced budget amendment is not radical. Calling for term limits is not radical," Jent said, in defense of Paul. "And making the congressmen read the bill before they pass it -- before they vote on it -- that's so far from radical that I can't believe they can say that."

Thad Connally, who owns First Choice Home Medical, a supply store less than a mile from Paul's medical office, appreciates Paul's focus on getting government spending under control.

"I like the fact that he's not a career politician," Connally said.

"This victory is about whether or not conservatives can win," Paul told the crowd Saturday night. "This election's about more than me."

Interactive Map: CBS News Election 2010 Race Ratings

But in many ways, the Kentucky race has been all about Paul -- his position at the vanguard of the Tea Party movement and his controversial comments, such as his criticism in past interviews of the landmark 1964 Civil Rights Act and 1990 Americans with Disabilities Act.

In a profile in GQ magazine, Paul loosely likened worsening American economic conditions to the chaos in Weimer Republic Germany that presaged the rise of the Nazis.

Conway says, "Who on earth would invoke Hitler in a Senate campaign in 2010? I reject him and I reject his brad of politics altogether."

Conway has also seized on a Paul statement downplaying the drug problem in a state plagued by high opiate addiction rates, particularly due to illicit use of the pain killer Oxycontin.

Conway routinely calls Paul "radical" and "risky" for his calls to eliminate the federal departments of education and agriculture and to roll back environmental and mine safety regulations.

"He would look at widows of coal miners and say, 'you know what, sometimes accidents happen, and there's no need for federal mine safety regulations," Conway told supporters undergoing "get out the vote" training on Saturday.

"Mine regulations are written in the blood of coal miners, and we have to stand up for them," Conway said.

Conway narrowly lost his 2002 bid for the House of Representatives seat for the Louisville area. In 2007, he rebounded to win the statewide race for attorney general. He sees his biggest accomplishments as launching a cyber-crimes unit that has removed more than 80,000 child pornography images from the Internet, and collecting $100 million for Medicare fraud.

Ilona Franck and her husband, Bill, grabbed a stack of Conway yard signs at the Saturday gathering.

"I like his record. He's been a good attorney general for the state. He has tried to reduce the dependence on prescription drugs. I like that the fact that he has tried to go after porn on the Internet," said Mrs. Franck.

"He is a moderate Democrat, and I hope he is able to be elected in this kind of climate that we have," she said.

Recent polls have shown the race to be a dead heat. A CNN/Time poll in the first week of September showed the candidates tied at 46 percent, while a SurveyUSA poll released last week gave Paul 47 percent and Conway 45 percent.

This story was filed by CBS News producer Phil Hirschkorn and correspondent Nancy Cordes.

[noloyalisti]

I agree, give them back the south. We in the west and north subsidize those red states anyway. Build a border fence and give everyone 90 days to go to one side or another, then close the border. It is frankly embarrassing to have such a slew of uneducated, racist, religious extremists as part of progressive America.

[skystream3]

So in other words, maybe we should have let the CSA secede from the USA back in 1861, and then we wouldn't have such a "slew of uneducated, racist, religious extremists as part of progressive America." Maybe Lincoln was given too much credit for waging such a horrible war and bringing the country back together, when it's just as divided today!

[superdem1]

While Mortar's "divorce" message is hopeless right wing garbage, I actually agree America should be divided into two states, so that right wingers like him can all go their separate way - I am so sick of fighting those people, we will never agree, let them have no abortions, let them teach religion in the public schools, let them ban stem cell research, let them have no taxes, let them have complete unregulated corporate control of everything, let them do away with Social Security, let them oppress gay people, black people, women, let them give all power to the wealthy, let them have all the guns they want. Give them Texas, and all of the South. Good bye and good riddence ! Then we could get the Democratic States of America going again, and in very short order we'd see which nation was the better off. I can tell you I would never visit the Republican States of America. It would be so great to let all Republicans just go away, live like cavemen or the wild west, while we progress into the future with solar energy, clean water, clean air, food that's been inspected, civil rights respected, guns under control, it would be so great.

[noloyalisti]

Mortar actually thinks the Boston Tea Party was a revolt against government taxes. Like Fox Propaganda Channel, the right wing wants to re-invent history for their own twisted and narrow views.

[WVVic]

Rand Paul is a Herbert Hoover/Richard Nixon Republican. He and his smiling phonies will end Social Security and Medicare if put in power. The Tea Party is as phony as the 1994 Republican Contract With America which promised (hehehe)Term-Limits. That's history the Liar-Loving Republicans cannot deny.

[WVVic]

Sarah Palin is not only quitter as governor but is quitter as mother too, preferring the Tea Party and Dancing With The Stars to motherhood.

[dante805]

You have to be nuts to vote for Con-man-Conway. We dont need another Obama wanna be in the Senate. Paul may be a little out there but I'd rather have a real guy than a phony con-artist and lawyer. Stem the red tide on Nov 2. Send Harry Reid, Feingold, Boxer, and Murray packing.

[WVVic]

Rand Paul and Tea Party Parrots of the Powerful prefer Exxon & BP to own American highways and choosing to charge us tolls on top of high gasoline. He will help take us back the Bush prices of over $4.00 per gallon. He is his daddy's boy.

[FoolKiller]

"daddy's boy"??? The only daddy's boy in this race is Conway. If you don't know what I'm talking about, visit KY and be enlightened. It's common knowledge here that his millionaire daddy has bought him every job he has ever had (but still can't get him to keep his foot out of his mouth).

[msimamaji]

Any Wall Street gamester knows who to vote for. The instant Rand Paul wins, I'd suggest they buy up Massey Energy stock. The GOP will eliminate the EPA and the OSHA. They'll give a green light for mountain top removal. Of course this will result in a lot of coal miners getting killed in accidents. It means toxic chemicals leeching into the water supply. It means a whole generation of children with weird types of cancers. And since the GOP is going to eliminate health care reform, a lot of these children will die because they cannot afford medical care.
But when Wall Street makes a profit, who gives a rat about the lives of a bunch of stupid crackers? So go ahead Ketucky, elect Rand Paul. Watch your children die as the Dow Jones soars.

[rightbehind]

by lumos1 October 4, 2010 10:48 AM EDT
mor_tar proves on a daily basis how protecting Americans from corporate American GREED, and keeping OUR air and water safe for ALL Americans, is just not in his conservative bible of destroying our environment! YOU and your ilk are the problem in America today!---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------How do we get rid of them? Maybe send them all tickets to a third world country where there are no rules? I'll be glad to add that to the National Debt.

[Mungam44]

Rand Paul is correct to address the issue of social security. This is too much of a "hot potatoe" for most democrats. It is a mounting problem, which like many others, needs to be addressed now rather than later. Coming from one who is now collecting under the system it is evident that too many people are collecting benefits many of whom are not of retirement age. Moreover, there is an increasing crowd waiting to get in. The stress on the system will only get worse. Retirement age may have to increase. Means testing might be needed with a reduction in benefits for those with other income sources. To just sweep the subject "under the rug" is not fair to future generations who are already being saddled with a growing debt that could consume this country and their future. This country was not built with or upon socialsim but it can surely be destroyed by it. Free enterprise works but it does appear there are/have been many in the financial community, and elsewhere, who are too driven by personal greed. While not a big fan of government oversight, unfortunately, recent history has shown we can't rely on conscience being a sufficient guide.

[rightbehind]

Hand social security to wall street and they could make it disappear in an hour with the phony baloney numbers they post from day to day. I agree we need to eliminate the fraud. Privatising is definitely not the answer. wall street will be handing out individual bonuses in the billions instead of millions if they get social security.

[wdrussell1]

Hey libertarians,it's time to turn that light bulb over your heads, on. Ron Paul might be a libertarian,Rand Paul is a wacko fundi. Rand Paul is one of 78 republicans running for office who believe the government should force a woman to bears a child conceived by a rapist.

[rightbehind]

You forgot to mention incest. God laid waste to 2 cities regardless of man, woman, or child because of sin.

[thechooch1]

Mortar_29 So the mother should be forced to give birth to the rapist's child?

[Samatt281]

Hopefully the voters of Kentucky will vote smart.
The country doesn't need any more far right Corporate Socialist.

[rightbehind]

The corporations for the most part have Rand Paul muzzled. There are a lot of voters out there that vote out of ignorance. A candidate wraps themselves in a flag, waives a bible, or holds up a paper constitution and they automatically think the candidate must represent the righteous. We always have hope though.