Senate Candidates Spar in Holyoke

The last time they met, W. Mitt Romney and U.S. Sen. Edward M. Kennedy '54-'56 attached each other's records.

Last night's town meeting at Holyoke Community College proved less volatile and more issue-oriented than Tuesday's debate.

Although Romney performed impressively last night, a Boston Globe/WBZ poll released earlier showed that significant damage has already been done to his campaign. After Tuesday's debate, Kennedy edged ahead of Romney by 20 points.

Constrained by the slower-paced town meeting format of last night's event. Romney wasn't able to engage Kennedy in the kind of confrontation that characterized Tuesday's debate.

Although Romney occasionally attacked Kennedy on his record, criticizing the senator's votes against Operation Desert Storm and his failure to pass a comprehensive welfare reform bill, potential skirmishes were soon cut off by the moderator.

Crime was the only issue that sparked a prolonged conflict between the candidates.

Romney faulted Kennedy for voting against a mandatory sentencing law and for being soft on criminals who sell drugs to children.

Kennedy, defending his votes, then challenged Romney on his stance on gun control.

"You talk about guns?" Kennedy snapped. "I know enough about it, Mr. Romney."

The other issues frequently raised in the meeting were education and welfare reforrh.

Both candidates said they favored a welfare program that would put every able-bodied aid recipient to work.

"The best social program is a good job," said Romney, a highly successful executive who cited his business savvy as a skill qualifying him for the Senate.

"My skills are particularly attuned to the times," Romney said.

Romney stressed the importance of a tax credit to companies to give them an incentive to put welfare recipients to work. Kennedy concurred, pointing out that the tax credit is "on the books," but needed to be "on the table."

Child care became a central focus of the debate, figuring into both candidates' answers on education, welfare and crime.

Romney raised the issue of family values in his responses on crime prevention and welfare reform.

"We need to have two parents in the home to make sure our kids are learning-ready," Romney said, citing the decline of the '50s nuclear family as a cause of child neglect. "If two parents work...we need good child care facilities in the community."

Asked how he would change if re-elected, Kennedy sold himself as a consensus builder who had recently "fashioned bipartisan coalitions," something that happens in Congress "when we're at out best."

Romney, too, promised to reject party politics.

"I'm not going to Washington to toe the line," Romney said. "I've given up too much to be a... party politician for any party."

Asked to name issue on which he'd stray from the party line, Romney said he disagreed with the Republican platform on the Crime Bill and capital gains taxes.

Members of the citizen panel that questioned the candidates often referred to their familiarity with Kennedy and his record.

Before beginning his question, one citizen referred to his last meeting with the senator in 1962.

"I think you'd have to agree we've both changed a lot," the questioner joked, motioning to his belly.

One woman who asked Romney what he would do to represent oft-ignored Western Massachusetts declined to ask Kennedy the same question.

"I know him," she said simply.

But Romney criticized Kennedy for having spent so long in the public eye as a six-term senator.

"He's been there 32 years," Romney said. "He knows not only the trees and the forests, but the leaves, one by one."

Romney argued that Kennedy's decades in office have distanced him from the people he represents.

If elected to office, Romney said he would end Massachusetts' politics-as-usual in the Senate.

"The heart of my campaign is to make sure...I go to Washington with the intent of changing things there," Romney said.

Meanwhile, Kennedy offered his six terms of political experience as his greatest qualification for office, citing his familiarity with labor issues and education as a good background for dealing with the thorny issue of health care reform.

Said Kennedy: "That's how I can be effective in the next Congress.

Child care became a central focus of the debate, figuring into both candidates' answers on education, welfare and crime.

Romney raised the issue of family values in his responses on crime prevention and welfare reform.

"We need to have two parents in the home to make sure our kids are learning-ready," Romney said, citing the decline of the '50s nuclear family as a cause of child neglect. "If two parents work...we need good child care facilities in the community."

Asked how he would change if re-elected, Kennedy sold himself as a consensus builder who had recently "fashioned bipartisan coalitions," something that happens in Congress "when we're at out best."

Romney, too, promised to reject party politics.

"I'm not going to Washington to toe the line," Romney said. "I've given up too much to be a... party politician for any party."

Asked to name issue on which he'd stray from the party line, Romney said he disagreed with the Republican platform on the Crime Bill and capital gains taxes.

Members of the citizen panel that questioned the candidates often referred to their familiarity with Kennedy and his record.

Before beginning his question, one citizen referred to his last meeting with the senator in 1962.

"I think you'd have to agree we've both changed a lot," the questioner joked, motioning to his belly.

One woman who asked Romney what he would do to represent oft-ignored Western Massachusetts declined to ask Kennedy the same question.

"I know him," she said simply.

But Romney criticized Kennedy for having spent so long in the public eye as a six-term senator.

"He's been there 32 years," Romney said. "He knows not only the trees and the forests, but the leaves, one by one."

Romney argued that Kennedy's decades in office have distanced him from the people he represents.

If elected to office, Romney said he would end Massachusetts' politics-as-usual in the Senate.

"The heart of my campaign is to make sure...I go to Washington with the intent of changing things there," Romney said.

Meanwhile, Kennedy offered his six terms of political experience as his greatest qualification for office, citing his familiarity with labor issues and education as a good background for dealing with the thorny issue of health care reform.

Said Kennedy: "That's how I can be effective in the next Congress.