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Booker and Bell spar over Ebola, casinos, economy

TRENTON - New Jersey's candidates for a U.S. Senate seat held their only debate Friday, sparring over issues ranging from the Ebola outbreak to the prospect of a casino in North Jersey.

Republican candidate for Senate Jeff Bell, left, and incumbent Democrat Cory Booker shake hands before their debate Friday, Oct. 24, 2014, in Trenton, N.J. (AP Photo/Mel Evans)
Republican candidate for Senate Jeff Bell, left, and incumbent Democrat Cory Booker shake hands before their debate Friday, Oct. 24, 2014, in Trenton, N.J. (AP Photo/Mel Evans)Read more

TRENTON - New Jersey's candidates for a U.S. Senate seat held their only debate Friday, sparring over issues ranging from the Ebola outbreak to the prospect of a casino in North Jersey.

U.S. Sen. Cory A. Booker, a Democrat seeking a full six-year term in the Nov. 4 election, sought to portray Republican Jeff Bell as a tea-party extremist who would block progress in Washington.

Bell, a former campaign aide to President Ronald Reagan who was the GOP nominee for Senate in 1978, said Booker would work to advance what he described as President Obama's failed economic policies.

Bell joined a growing chorus of politicians calling for a temporary travel ban from West African countries where the Ebola virus has killed thousands. In the United States, it has killed a Liberian national in Texas and infected others, including a New York doctor.

"The government has underreacted; we have underestimated the ease with which this spreads," Bell said at the debate, taped Friday at 6ABC's studio in Trenton. The debate will air Sunday on New York's Channel 7 (WABC) at 11 a.m. and on 6ABC at 1 p.m. It will be posted at www.7online.com.

"President Obama has once again failed," Bell said.

Booker responded that Bell's tea-party allies in Congress fought to reduce funding for the federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, which is working to contain the outbreak.

Public health experts have broadly opposed a travel ban.

On a variety of issues, Booker, a former mayor of Newark, played up his collaboration with Republican Gov. Christie and at times distanced himself from Obama, whose job approval ratings have sunk in New Jersey and elsewhere.

For example, Booker said he agreed with Christie's move to legalize sports betting. He said he disagreed with Obama's decision to bomb so-called Islamic State militants in Syria without seeking congressional approval, and also chided the president for delaying executive action on immigration reform until after the November elections.

"The president was wrong," Booker said. He added, "There should be no waiting for politics."

Bell disagreed, saying comprehensive reform of the country's immigration laws could come only from Congress.

"Senator, no one is going to come together if the president threatens unilateral executive action," Bell said.

He and Booker agree that the United States should provide a path to citizenship for immigrants here illegally, and both would promote a guest-worker program. The Senate passed an overhaul in 2013 but it stalled in the Republican-controlled House.

Republicans are seeking to win control of the Senate, but in New Jersey, Booker leads Bell by 16 percentage points, according to Real Clear Politics' average of polls. Booker, who won a special election last year after the death of Sen. Frank R. Lautenberg, has raised considerably more cash than has Bell.

Notably absent from the debate was discussion of Bell's signature issue of returning the United States to the gold standard.

Moderators didn't ask about the issue, but Bell did argue that the Federal Reserve's zero-interest rate policy had held back the economy.

Mostly, he railed against the "Obama-Booker vision" of an expansive federal government, saying it had failed on a number of fronts, including with the IRS targeting of conservative groups and the CDC's bungled response to Ebola.

Booker repeatedly characterized Bell as a tea-party radical, noting that Bell had authored a book titled The Case for Polarized Politics.

On local issues, Booker said he would oppose the expansion of casinos to North Jersey "if it's going to undermine" Atlantic City.

It was not clear whether Booker would support a revenue-sharing agreement pushed by Democrats such as Senate President Stephen Sweeney (D., Gloucester).

Bell said he was "totally opposed" to casino expansion, saying it would further hurt Atlantic City, where the casino market is contracting.

The candidates also clashed on same-sex marriage and abortion rights, which Booker supports and Bell opposes.

Booker agreed to only one debate against Bell. He said he had met with voters in other forums, and criticized Bell for moving to New Jersey this year after living in Virginia for 30 years.

Bell said he was compelled to run to rein in the Federal Reserve.

The debate was cosponsored by the League of Women Voters of New Jersey Education Fund, ABC, WABC-TV, and Noticias Univision-41.