In debate, O'Reilly goes on attack

But Kerry fiercely defends record

While US Senator John F. Kerry strongly disputed several issues that challenger Edward O'Reilly raised in a televised debate yesterday, the incumbent's first Democratic primary opponent in 24 years called for even more verbal sparring.

"We should have more debates and talk about these things. He should stop putting out press releases, and let's go one-on-one," O'Reilly said in an interview yesterday, after Kerry's campaign addressed his views expressed in the debate that aired on WBZ-TV.

"Ed O'Reilly sounded a lot like John McCain and Sarah Palin," said Roger Lau, Kerry's campaign manager, of the televised exchange. "When you have no real record of service and no ideas to run on - all you're left with are attacks. Bottom line: Ed O'Reilly can't respond to the issues because he doesn't understand the issues."

During the 19-minute debate, which was broadcast at 8:30 a.m. yesterday, O'Reilly repeatedly went on the attack as Kerry tried to fend him off. It was the first, and probably only, debate before the Sept. 16 primary.

O'Reilly declined last night to respond directly to Kerry's charges, challenging him to more debates so the two could tangle in public.

"A 19-minute debate does not make for a healthy democracy. We need to have more," he said.

In the debate, which reporters were able to view when it was taped on Friday, O'Reilly criticized Kerry for his vote to authorize the war in Iraq in 2002, saying Kerry voted that way to advance his political career. He also suggested that a senator of 24 years should have achieved more clout than chairmanship of the Committee on Small Business and Entrepreneurship, an allegation Kerry called insulting.

When O'Reilly alleged that Kerry had not used his large campaign account enough to help other Democratic candidates, Kerry said, "That is plain, flat untrue," and cited nearly $30 million he gave to the Democratic National Committee in 2004.

John Walsh, chairman of the Massachusetts Democratic Party, sent out a statement yesterday criticizing O'Reilly's assertion.

"A vigorous discussion of issues and differences in a primary are healthy for our party, but it is false to suggest that Senator John Kerry has not supported fellow Democrats," Walsh said. "In truth, his consistent support of Democrats is among the strongest in America."

Kerry's campaign also sent out a list of statements made by prominent national Democrats in 2006 that appeared to refute O'Reilly's allegation.

Kerry said his political action committee, then called Keeping America's Promise, was the largest contributor to Democratic campaigns in the 2006 cycle. The PAC donated more than $4 million to Democratic organizations and candidates, including the entire Massachusetts delegation.

The offensive yesterday by the Kerry campaign marks a new, more aggressive approach as the primary nears.

Kerry has not faced a Democratic challenger since he won the seat in 1984, and since then the only serious race for the seat was in 1996, when he was opposed by then-Governor William F. Weld, a Republican.

The winner of the Sept. 16 primary will face Republican Jeff Beatty in November.

Going up against a longtime incumbent and 2004 presidential nominee, O'Reilly faces an uphill battle. He has little experience in elective politics - a two-year term on the Gloucester City Council in the 1980s and a two-year term on the Gloucester School Committee in the 1990s - and is massively underfunded, with 2 percent of the $8.8 million that Kerry has in his coffers.

The Kerry campaign also questioned O'Reilly's experience yesterday, distributing a quote from O'Reilly in the Gloucester Daily Times, saying he gave up the chairmanship of the School Committee because "it was too many calls and too much coordination."