6th district candidates spar in Lynn

LYNN – U.S. Rep. John Tierney and his Republican challenger William Hudak spent most of Thursday’s debate at St. Mary’s High School talking calmly about economic issues facing the 6th district.But when things turned to the two or three hot-button issues in the campaign – usually at the initiation of one or both of the two candidates – the sometimes heated nature of the campaign quickly flared up.When asked how he could work with Republicans if Democrats are the minority party in Congress after the Nov. 2 election, Tierney raised the topic of how important it was for lawmakers to share respect for each other.”I don’t think that my opponent starting off this campaign by putting (up) signs of the president of the United States masquerading as a terrorist or a killer is a good way to start having respect for each other,” Tierney said, referring to Hudak’s decision to put up a lawn sign two years ago at his house that made President Barack Obama look like terrorist mastermind Osama bin Laden.Hudak acknowledged after the debate that he made a mistake by putting up the sign and maintained that if he hadn’t, he’d be 10 to 15 points up in any poll with Tierney.Richard E. Holbrook, the chief executive officer and President of the Eastern Bank Corporation, served as the moderator of the debate and right at the start of the event asked the audience of both Hudak and Tierney supporters to display the proper decorum throughout.”Let’s hold off applause until the end of the debate. Let’s not have any boos or catcalls or jeers during the debate,” Holbrook said.During the portion of the debate when candidates could ask each other one question, Hudak raised the issue of how Tierney’s wife, Patrice Tierney, 59, of Salem, had pleaded guilty in federal court to charges that she helped her brother conceal income from an illegal offshore gambling business.Tierney has maintained he didn’t know that his wife was overseeing an account that her brother, Robert Eremian, had more than $7 million in illegal gambling profits in.”In light of a very clear history of family illegality and $7 million running throughout your spouse’s account ? how do you expect voters to honestly believe you when you say you know nothing about the $7 million ?” Hudak asked.Tierney said his financial disclosure statements were “in perfect order” and then added, “I know you would love to run against my brother-in-law, but you don’t have that luxury.”Tierney, during his question to Hudak, asked his Republican challenger about his decision to say on a Tea Party questionnaire that he supported the dismantling of the federal Department of Education. Tierney said eliminating the DOE would cause “about 10 percent of the funding for the city of Lynn’s” public schools in K-12 to evaporate.Hudak replied, “The easiest way to answer that, Congressman, is to say it’s not true.”The Republican attorney said he believes that the management of local schools should be done by “the parents and not the Congress,” and has not advocated for the elimination of the DOE.During closing statements, Hudak again raised the issue of the lawn sign.”It’s the only issue in this whole campaign that the congressman wants to talk about,” Hudak said.He described the campaign Tierney has run as “the most anti-American, unreasonable, smear campaign” he’s ever seen.And Hudak pointed to a flier Tierney has mailed out during the last two weeks of the campaign, which Hudak said his staffers refer to as the “liar flier,” concerning the Republican challenger’s alleged stands on issues and his wife’s ownership of $1 million in Bank of America stock.Tierney has suggested that’s why Hudak opposes reforming Wall Street.”The congressman knows more about my wife than he does about his own,” Hudak said to scattered applause and then suggested that Tierney was “not fit to continue to be our representative.”Tierney during his closing statement noted how Hudak dropped his own lawsuit he filed this week, claiming Tierney had made “fals