Colorado & Denver News

DENVER (CBS4) ― The three Democrats running for the party's nomination for Congressional District 7 faced off this week in a debate sponsored by CBS4 and its election partners KBDI and The Rocky Mountain News.

District 7 is expected to be one of the most competitive November races in the nation because incumbant Rep. Bob Beauprez is not seeking re-election. Beauprez is running against Democrat Bill Ritter for the governor's office.

Peggy Lamm, Ed Perlmutter and Herb Rubenstein will be on the Democratic primary ballot Aug. 8.

Lamm is a former state representative, Perlmutter is an attorney who has also served as a state senator and Rubenstein is an attorney who has not held office but has worked for the federal government.

Rick O'Donnell is the Republican candidate for the district, and he has no primary challenger.

During the debate Democratic contenders tackled topics ranging from illegal immigration to stem cell research to the war in Iraq.

The trio agreed on illegal immigration for the most part. Each said the Republican-controlled Congress needed to taken more action against illegal immigration in recent years.

As for the war in Iraq, Rubenstein has long been on record as saying American troops should be pulled out now.

"We've started a civil war in Iraq," Rubenstein said. "One hundred people are dying every day."

"We need to have the Sunnis, the Kurds, and the Shiites sit down in a peace conference and we need to find a new way to manage Iraq and that means getting our troops out," he said.

Lamm said she does believe the situation in Iraq is dangerous but does not favor setting a timetable for pulling troops out, citing the instability in the region.

"I think it is pretense again for us to pretend as though this is somehow a working situation," she said. Lamm said there needs to be a system put in place in Iraq to train security forces.

Perlmutter said he believes American troops should be pulled out of Iraq as soon as it is practical. "I define practical to mean transition security to Iraqi police and military as soon as possible," he said.

Perlmutter did set a timetable; he said he believes American troops should be out of Iraq by spring of 2008. That would be 5 years after the war began.

During the debate the three Democrats were asked to explain why they would be the right candidate to beat O'Donnell in November.

Lamm said O'Donnell represents "more of the same" for Washington because of his close ties to the Bush administration. Bush came to Denver last week for a fundraiser for O'Donnell.

"If you like what's been going on right now in Washington, then I'm not your guy," she said. She went on to promise to fight special interests and to stand up for working people.

Perlmutter agreed that the November election is about change.

"I'm about change -- that is what our campaign is all about," he said. "If Republicans are in office, we're not going to change the way this nation is being run."

Rubenstein said he has come up a plan to fight illegal immigration, to get out of Iraq and to break the nation's dependence on foreign oil. He also addressed the importance of the 7th District in the national election in November, saying it could play an important role as national Democrats try to take over control of the House of Representatives.

"We're in the swing district in the swing state in the future swing region of the United States," he said.

(© MMVI CBS Television Stations, Inc. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.)