Gomez tried to burnish his moderate credentials during the debate. Trailing, Gomez takes fight to Markey

Underdog Massachusetts Republican Senate candidate Gabriel Gomez went all out in a debate against frontrunner Ed Markey Tuesday to pin Washington’s ills on the longtime Democratic congressman.

Gomez said the national debt, now $17 trillion, was $680 billion when Markey came to Congress in 1976.


“You are Washington, D.C., and you own the national debt, sir,” Gomez said during the second of three debates ahead of a June 25 special election.

Markey sought to nationalize the race the night before President Barack Obama flies to Boston for a campaign rally on his behalf.

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“My job has been fighting the tea party Republicans,” said Markey. “These people arrived committed to making sure that President Obama’s agenda doesn’t move at all.”

Several polls have shown the Democrat leading by high single digits in this deep-blue state. Determined to avoid a repeat of Scott Brown’s 2010 upset, the national party is funneling hundreds of thousands of dollars in for television buys.

Markey said NSA leaker Edward Snowden should be prosecuted for breaking the law.

“I would leave it up to the prosecutors to determine what the appropriate punishment is,” he said.

Gomez answered by saying that the revelations are “a direct reflection of what’s going on down in D.C.” and promised to restore “integrity and honor” after 37 years of Markey representing the state.

After Markey noted that his opponent worked in finance, Gomez shot back that Markey voted for the Wall Street bailout.

Gomez refused to rule out getting rid of the home mortgage interest deduction as part of a grand bargain on tax reform. He said he does not want to tie his hands with any preconditions for negotiating because that could doom the prospects for a deal.

“You need to go in there and have an open mind and discuss everything,” he said. “Everything needs to be on the table.”

Markey fired back: “That is a precondition that I will set.”

Gomez tried to burnish his moderate credentials by agreeing with Markey on a host of liberal priorities.

The Republican, for instance, endorsed a $10-an-hour minimum wage. And he came out in support of the Paycheck Fairness Act, backed by Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.), to close the gap between what women and men earn.

Answering that question about equal pay, Gomez volunteered his support for gay marriage.

“If two people are in love, they should be able to get married,” he said.

Advocating trade deals as part of an answer on how he’d create jobs, Gomez stressed: “Obviously I would invite the unions to have a seat at the table … to make sure it’s fair.”

Explaining his support for the Keystone Pipeline, Gomez declared that he is “a green Republican.”

“There are people in my party that deny science,” he said.

Gomez answered part of one question in Spanish and spoke again in his native tongue during a concluding statement.

“I’m going to approach this job with a military man’s discipline, a father’s sensitivity and a businessman’s experience,” he said.

Both candidates had somewhat awkward moments.

Markey said Republicans follow “a formula” of running up the debt and then complain about deficits. At one point, he said: “It’s really not math. It’s just arithmetic!”

Complaining about the complexity of the tax code, the wealthy Gomez declared to the crowd: “I bet you almost no one in the room can do their own taxes.”

Markey praised Sen. Rand Paul (R-Ky.) for the way he filibustered the use of drones, but he said that reforms are needed to prevent senators from blocking legislation without actually standing on the Senate floor.

Gomez responded that he could have gone longer than Paul, who spoke for nearly 13 hours without urinating.

“I’ve gone lots longer than that in my time on the SEAL team,” said Gomez.