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Ed Gillespie, the Republican candidate for U.S. Senate, suggested Monday that Sen. Mark R. Warner, D-Va., played politics with a federal judgeship in an effort to keep state Sen. Phillip P. Puckett, D-Russell, from resigning.

In his final debate with Warner, Gillespie said Virginians deserve answers about allegations that Warner discussed the prospect of a federal judgeship for Puckett’s daughter during a June phone conversation with her brother.

“I would never play politics with recommending judicial appointments, and I certainly wouldn’t raise the prospect of it in the context of a decision about expanding Obamacare further in the commonwealth of Virginia,” Gillespie said during the hourlong debate in the Richmond-area studio of PBS station WCVE.

Warner said he has been a friend of Puckett and his family for nearly 20 years. He stressed that while he reached out to Puckett’s son, Joseph, and brainstormed about possible opportunities for his sister, he never offered Martha Ketron a job.

“In that brainstorming we talked about a lot of different options, but let me make clear,” Warner said. “I did not offer her a job, nor would I offer her any kind of position.”