Alpert attacks, Blumenthal counters in first debate

Hartford - Merrick Alpert ripped into his rival for the Democratic nomination for the U.S. Senate, Attorney General Richard Blumenthal, in the first debate of the primary campaign.

In an hourlong forum, Alpert returned again and again to his central charge against Blumenthal, who has served as attorney general for nearly 20 years and remains one of the most popular politicians in the state.

The attorney general, said Al-pert, is prone to "incrementalism," litigious to a fault, and too much of a "career politician" to deliver the massive reforms needed in Washington.

Blumenthal countered those jibes with repeated pledges to continue his efforts to rein in financial industry malfeasance, contest denials of care by health insurers and overhaul energy policy to help Connecticut residents and businesses, the causes he says have been central to his tenure as attorney general.

Focus in the 2010 Senate race has centered on the Republican field since Sen. Chris Dodd announced he would not seek re-election after months of gloomy poll numbers. But in small gatherings, and now on live television, the Democratic race is showing its own spark.

Alpert, outgunned in poll numbers, name recognition and goodwill in the party, was on the attack throughout the debate, which was sponsored by the Hartford Courant and the University of Hartford, where it was held.

"Lawsuits don't create jobs, entrepreneurs do," the Mystic businessman said to Blumenthal while arguing for a relaxation of regulation to "get government off the back of business" in order to reverse job losses.

That charge echoes longstanding Republican complaints that Blumenthal and his staff have been too aggressive in bringing legal actions against businesses in the state.

Blumenthal retorted that his legal efforts have allowed for greater competition among businesses and also altered some of the factors that have damaged job growth in Connecticut, particularly his efforts to fight rising electricity costs.

"We have helped, not hurt, business in this state," Blumenthal said.

The debate allowed both candidates to introduce new levels of detail to their respective platforms, and also to return to familiar themes.

Blumenthal said he would push to repeal the insurance industry's exemption from federal antitrust laws, which he called a "quirk of history," and would seek redress, as he has in his current position, for those who are denied care.

"We have been straitjacketed by a system that is too weak, incompetent and ineffective," Blumenthal said.

Alpert instead proposed opening Medicare to all citizens and dismissed Blumenthal's suggested reforms as insufficient.

"That's a classic example of whether you're going to step in and engage this stuff or whether you're going to nibble around the edges," Alpert said.

In a meeting with reporters after the debate, Alpert could not provide a price tag for his Medicare proposal, but he said the nation would be better prepared to pay for a single-payer health care system if it withdrew from Afghanistan.

Blumenthal did not take questions from reporters after the debate; a spokeswoman said he had left to attend a "meet and greet-slash-fundraiser" in Fairfield County.

The candidates differ most profoundly on U.S. policy in Afghanistan.

Blumenthal, while lamenting that military conflict had seemed to be the default preference of the Bush administration, strongly supports the Obama administration's troop escalation in Afghanistan. Alpert, meanwhile, walked 117 miles across the state last year to draw attention to his position: a call for immediate withdrawal from the country of U.S. combat troops.

Fewer than 100 al-Qaida militants are believed to be in Afghanistan, according to some projections, Alpert said, "so we shouldn't pretend that it's part of the war on terror. It's not."

Alpert proposes leaving special operations and intelligence forces in the country and relying on drone strikes to target al-Qaida and Taliban militants, a position substantially similar to that espoused by politicians from both parties, including Republican Senate hopeful Rob Simmons.

Blumenthal, meanwhile, said he would side with those, like Gen. Stanley McChrystal, the U.S. commander in Afghanistan, who believe a hasty withdrawal "would mean disaster" for U.S. troops.

The issue triggered a moment of anger from Blumenthal in the closing moments of the debate after Alpert criticized his support for the Afghanistan mission during a discussion of tax cuts.

"The idea that I or anyone else favors war is absolutely the opposite of what I've said tonight," Blumenthal said.

But the argument returned again and again to questions of boldness. While Blumenthal said he would support efforts to reform financial practices, including dividing brokerage from consumer banking functions, Alpert said Congress should reinstate in full the Glass-Steagall Act, which was repealed under heavy lobbying from banking interests in 1999 and enabled investment and consumer banks to merge.

On a question near the end of the debate on policy toward Cuba, the charge of "incrementalism" reared its head again.

Both candidates said they favored moving the country toward open diplomatic relations with the island nation after decades of embargo and hostility.

That, said Blumenthal, "will be a demanding and painstaking process" that will require consultation with Cuban-Americans about their willingness to accept renewed relations between the nations.

"We should listen to them," Blumenthal said.

Alpert pounced.

If anyone "wanted to hear the dangers of incrementalism, it was that answer," the challenger said. "We should immediately normalize relations with Cuba. ... It's a failed policy."

On rebuttal, Blumenthal said he believed that such painstaking negotiations could happen quickly, even within the next several years.

That wasn't fast enough for his opponent.

"I would vote to do it tonight," Alpert said. "Why wait?"

The Republican candidates, former U.S. Rep. Rob Simmons, former World Wrestling Entertainment CEO Linda McMahon, and financier Peter Schiff, will debate tonight at the University of Hartford.